Reduced Lip Scar Formation in Hoxbl3 Knockout Mice

摘要

Severe scarring is one of the most serious complications after cleft lip and palate surgery, leaving many children affected by this condition disfigured. In contrast to adult skin wounds, fetal skin wounds made prior to the third trimester heal without a scar. It has been reported that compared with adult skin, Hoxbl3 is differentially expressed in fetal skin and substantially down regulated in fetal wounds. Recent adult wound healing studies using a Hoxbl3 knockout (KO) mouse model indicated cutaneous wound healing in the adult upper dorsal back skin is fetal-like scarless wound healing. Our research interest has been focused on comprehensive wound healing study of the lip region, using a mouse model to simulate cleft lip and palate disease. We have established a mouse lip surgery model that mimics cleft lip surgery and demonstrate reduced scar formation in the lip region of the HoxbJ3 KO mouse.