Severe hypoxia and malnutrition collectively contribute to scar fibroblast inhibition and cell apoptosis

Abstract

This study aims to investigate whether severe hypoxia and malnutrition in scar tissue play key roles to induce hypertrophic scar regression. And scar-derived fibroblasts were treated with moderate/severe hypoxia and malnutrition to model condition of proliferative and regressive scar (5%O2 +5%FCS and 0.5%O2 + 0.5%FCS), and normoxia with well nutrition as control (10%O2 + 10%FCS). Our results demonstrated that severe hypoxia and malnutrition resulted in significantly reduced cell viability and collagen production, as well as HIF-1, VEGF, TGF-β1, and Bcl-2 protein expression when compared with control, and cell apoptosis occurred. Therefore, the severe hypoxia and malnutrition in scar tissue contribute to fibroblast inhibition and cell apoptosis, which is correlated with scar regression.