Leg and foot ulcers are very common, with an estimated prevalence of 1 to 2% among U.S. adults and therefore they have a major effect on public health. Among the most common causes of lower-extremity ulcers are foot ulcers associated with Diabetes Mellitus (DM).  Caused by neuropathy, vascular disease, or a combination of the 2, more than 30% of diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) do not fully heal after 6 months, and their presence increases the risk of osteomyelitis, amputation, and mortality.  The costs of the disease are staggering as patients with DM have a 1 out of 3 to 4 chance of developing an ulcer during their lifetime and over 1 million Americans have a DFU each year.  One in 6 ulcers result in amputation and 1 in 3 patients with DM with an ulcer are dead within 5 years.  The annual financial costs associated with DFUs are large as well.  As an example, in the United States are approximately between $9 billion to $13 billion each year (in direct costs alone) for DFU.

For these reasons and others, the editorial team has compiled a series of recent articles about DFUs published in Wound Repair and Regeneration (WRR) to serve as a primer of recent research work in this very important area of research and unmet clinical need.  Our plan, over time, is to create several compilations in different areas of wound healing research published in WRR to help better serve our research and clinical communities, keeping them abreast of the latest work in the area. We hope you enjoy this compilation.