UF experts to investigate burn scars at their source

Excessive scarring in burn wounds could be treated more effectively if researchers better understood its causes, say two University of Florida medical experts who recently received a $25,000 grant to survey the genetic mechanisms involved.

The one-year grant, from the International Association of Firefighters, will fund a study comparing genetic activity in normally healing burn wounds with genetic activity in burn wounds developing excessive or hypertrophic scarring, said David Mozingo, M.D., director of the Shands Burn Center at UF.

Hypertrophic burn scars are thick, red, raised areas, limited to the site of the original injury, he said. They affect 10 percent of burn victims, particularly younger patients. Disfigurement is the most obvious consequence of the scarring, which also can cause pain and reduced range of motion.

“By going to the molecular level, we can learn more about this phenomenon,” Mozingo said. “The existing treatments are mostly things like wound dressings, and they aren’t very successful. If we can pinpoint what’s happening, we may be able to develop new drugs to treat the problem.”

He said the researchers will use gene array analysis to examine simultaneously 12,000 genes responsible for producing thousands of biological elements such as hormones, cytokines and matrix proteins involved in wound healing.

“Once we know which genes operate at an abnormally low or high level of activity in hypertrophic scars, we’ll begin to understand the problem,” said Mozingo, an associate professor of surgery and anesthesiology at UF’s College of Medicine.

Preliminary results suggest the genes that are more active in hypertrophic scarring include those involved in manufacturing extracellular matrix proteins and certain protein kinases, said Gregory Schultz, Ph.D, director of the Institute for Wound Researchand a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UF’s College of Medicine. Other researchers involved in the study include research fellow Heather Paddock, M.D., Lyle Moldawer, Ph.D., a professor of surgery, Elizabeth Beierle, M.D., an assistant professor of surgery.