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Updated: Jan 13, 2026

Isolation, Culture, and Characterization of Primary Dermal Fibroblasts from Human Keloid Tissue
Published on: July 28, 2023
Integrated Analysis of Multi-Omics and Mendelian Randomization Identified the Role of the IGF1 Signaling Pathway in
Wenkang Luan1, Shujun Fan1, Dongwen Jiang1
1Department of Auricular Reconstruction, Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Introduction:
Keloid is a chronic cutaneous fibrotic disorder caused by abnormal wound healing, and its pathogenesis is still unclear.
Methods:
We conducted differential expression analysis and Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) based on the GSE90051 and GSE190626 datasets. Analysis of Gene Ontology (GO) and the Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) explored the function and the pathways of key genes. STRING and Cytoscape were used to construct Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) networks and identify hub genes. Support Vector Machine-Recursive Feature Elimination (SVM-RFE) was used to screen out the potential biomarkers. Mendelian Randomization (MR) identified biomarkers with causal effects on keloid. Single-cell transcriptomic analysis and intercellular communication analysis of GSE181316 deciphered the key intercellular signaling pathway in keloid.
Results:
We first found 1028 key genes (differential expression analysis and WGCNA screening) and the pathways involved in these genes. We constructed the PPI network of these key genes and identified 15 hub genes and 28 diagnostic biomarkers for keloid among them. We further found that IGF1 was causally related to keloid, and IGF1 is a risk factor for keloid (IVW result, OR = 1.908, 95% CI = 1.017-3.580, p = 0.044). IGF1 was further found to be enriched in fibroblasts, epithelial cells, and stromal cells in keloid. Moreover, the IGF1-ITGA6+ITGB4 pathway plays an important role in the intercellular communication of fibroblasts, epithelial cells, and HSC CD34+ cells in keloid.
Discussion:
In summary, we have found that IGF1 is a risk factor for keloid. The IGF1- ITGA6+ITGB4 pathway plays an important role in the formation process of keloid.
Conclusion:
These results help us to gain a deeper understanding of the formation process of keloid and provide a theoretical basis for the clinical treatment of keloid patients in the future.
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