Researchers from the University of Illinois in Chicago have made a breakthrough in reducing the formation of scar tissue in wound healing, with the discovery that a naturally occurring protein can limit collagen production and reduce excessive scar tissue.

When an organism suffers severe injury, specialised cells known as fibroblasts are recruited to the wound site to rapidly produce extracellular matrix proteins and collagen, which provide structural support to the tissue.

Joon-Il Jun, a postdoctoral fellow following the work of Lester Lau, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the UIC College of Medicine, found that the protein called CCN1 causes collagen producing cells to enter a state of senescence, where they lose the ability to divide.

"The accumulation of senescent cells in the wound has the biological effect of inhibiting the formation of excess scar tissue," Jun said. He discovered that senescence in the wound serves an anti-fibrotic function, and that CCN1 is the critical protein that controls this process.

Jun found that in mice with a mutated, non-functional form of CCN1, the fibroblasts at the site of a skin wound did not become senescent, and the wound developed excessive scar tissue. Jun was then able to topically apply the CCN1 protein to the skin wound, triggering fibroblast senescence and limiting the formation of scar tissue in the effected mice.

According to Professor Lau, the discovery that senescence is a normal wound-healing response in the skin may prove important in understanding a wide range of pathological conditions related to tissue scarring.

"For example, chronic injury to the liver from a number of causes, including viral infections, alcoholism, diabetes and obesity, leads to fibrosis and may progress to cirrhosis," Lau said. "After a heart attack, accumulation of scar tissue in the heart impairs its ability to pump efficiently."

Lau hopes the ability to control the formation of scar tissue, or fibrosis, has important implications for future therapies for treating wound-healing disorders, including organ damage where functional tissue is replaced with scar tissue.

The research may also lead to advances in the recovery process for cosmetic surgery patients. Currently, treatments to reduce the appearance of scars include dermabrasion, collagen and steroid injections, as well as topical remedies such as petrolatum-based ointments, vitamin E and vitamin C creams.

However, these treatments are for care of scar tissue once it has formed. Professor Lau's research has the potential for doctors and surgeons to intervene much earlier in the scar-forming process.