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Updated: Jun 16, 2026
In Vitro Model of Human Cutaneous Hypertrophic Scarring using Macromolecular Crowding
Published on: May 1, 2020
Comparative proteomic analysis between normal skin and keloid scar
C T Ong1, Y T Khoo, A Mukhopadhyay
1Department of Surgery, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Background:
Keloids are pathological scars and, despite numerous available treatment modalities, continue to plague physicians and patients.
Objectives:
Identification of molecular mediators that contribute to this fibrotic phenotype.
Methods:
Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, MALDI-TOF, Mascot online database searching algorithm and Melanie 5 gel analysis software were employed for comparative proteomic analysis between normal skin (NS) and keloid scar (KS) tissue extracts.
Results:
Seventy-nine protein spots corresponding to 23 and 32 differentially expressed proteins were identified in NS and KS, respectively. Isoforms of heat shock proteins, gelsolin, carbonic anhydrase and notably keratin 10 were strongly expressed in NS along with manganese superoxide dismutase, immune components, antitrypsin, prostatic binding protein and crystalline. Various classes of proteins were found either to be present or to be upregulated in keloid tissue: (i) inflammatory/differentiated keratinocyte markers: S100 proteins, peroxiredoxin I; (ii) wound healing proteins: gelsolin-like capping protein; (iii) fibrogenetic proteins: mast cell β-tryptase, macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF); (iv) antifibrotic proteins: asporin; (v) tumour suppressor proteins: stratifin, galectin-1, maspin; and (vi) antiangiogenic proteins: pigment epithelium-derived factor. Significant increases in expression of asporin, stratifin, galectin-1 and MIF were observed by Western blot analysis in KS.
Conclusions:
This work has identified differentially expressed proteins specific to KS tissue extracts which can potentially be used as specific targets for therapeutic intervention.
