A predictive scar animal model is needed in order to study the mechanism and assess the therapies before its use in humans. However, due to the differences in wound healing patterns and regeneration ability, none of the existing models can fully simulate the characteristics of human scar. The aim of this study was to build a model that recapitulated the developing process and outcomes of human hypertrophic scar (HS). Nude mice were grafted with thin split-thickness human skins. The dynamic changes and final outcomes of the grafts were investigated. The results showed that human skin grafts survived and underwent progressive scarring remodeling in morphology and histology. Scar related markers (α-SMA, CD34, Collage I, TGF-β1) were positive in immunohistology. Protein expressions in TGF-β1/Smad2/3 pathway were increased in accordance with HS during the development process by western blotting. It was finally proved that scar reconstructed by this model matches a real-world human HS. This is a stable, easy to reproduce model for studying the scar formation process and its properties.
Keywords: Animal model; Hypertrophic scar; Split thickness skin; Tissue reconstruction.
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