Analysis of gene expression
pattern in human postburn hypertrophic scars
Abstract:
Hypertrophic scars cause cosmetic disfigurement and limited mobility
in burn patients. To better understand the molecular pathophysiology
of hypertrophic scar formation, microarray analyses were performed on
normal skin and hypertrophic scars from four burn patients. Microarray
analyses were determined in an effort to identify genes whose
expression discriminated between normal skin and mature, hypertrophic
scars. Surgical biopsies were obtained from two pediatric and two
adult patients 6 to 15 months after burn injury. Total RNA was
isolated from the samples and subjected to microarray analysis using
the Affymetrix U95Av2 GeneChip(R). Results from this analysis revealed
31 probe sets representing genes that were consistently up-regulated
at least two-fold in hypertrophic scar specimens from all four
patients and four probe sets that were down-regulated. The
significance analysis of microarrays algorithm also identified 35
probe sets whose increased expression resulted in the hierarchal
clustering of the hypertrophic scar and normal tissue, seven of which
were identical to the six genes identified by paired analyses. These
six genes all displayed elevated levels of expression in the scar
tissue. Proteins encoded by the genes identified included germline
oligometric matrix protein, matrix metalloproteinase-16, collagen type
1alpha, pleiotrophin, and thrombospondin-4. Although the results
presented here suggest that there may be unique patterns of gene
expression in hypertrophic scars that may be important in the
evaluation and treatment of hypertrophic scarring, the results must be
confirmed with larger datasets.
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