Grant: Operating Grant

Scar formation following injury to skin is a common, unwanted outcome of the wound healing process. Clinically, scars can range from fine lines to expansive, disfiguring hypertrophic or keloid scars. Regardless of the type of scars, they lead to considerable psychosocial impacts or physical complications or both for the individuals. At least 45 million patients in the United States alone undergo procedures that could benefit from therapies that reduce scar formation, resulting in a $4 billion anti-scarring therapy market annually. During the last decades, using various animal models, steady progress has been made to identify factors that may reduce scar formation. In spite of these advances, no effective therapy to prevent scar formation exists today. This is likely because information from the animal models cannot always be applied to humans. Thus, better models to compare scar-free and scar-forming wound healing are needed. Intriguingly, there is a common impression among clinicians that human oral mucosal wounds heal with minimal scar formation. However, there has been no rigorous experimental evidence that support this notion. Systematical studies of experimental wound healing in humans are, however, difficult to perform for ethical reasons. We have, therefore, developed a red Duroc pig model. Skin wound healing in these pigs has been extensively characterized and closely resembles human skin wound healing and results in abnormal scar formation. We have shown that wounds in the oral mucosa of these animals heal with significantly reduced scar formation compared to skin wounds. We have also confirmed that oral mucosal wound healing in these pigs is similar to that in human oral mucosa. By using this model, we will identify novel mechanisms that promote scarless healing and reduce scar formation. We believe that the present study will provide novel information that can be used to design therapies to reduce scar formation in human skin.