Expression and clinical significance of HIF-1, VEGF and MMP-2 in patients with pathological scar

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression levels and significance of hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in pathological scar. Methods 73 patients with pathological scar from March 2015 to February 2017 in our hospital were selected, including 42 cases in hypertrophic scar group and 31 cases in keloid group. 20 cases of non pathological scar patients and 20 cases of normal plastic surgery were selected as control group. mRNA and protein expression levels of HIF-1, VEGF and MMP-2 in skin tissue of each group were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative and Western blot, and the clinical significance was analyzed. Results Compared with non pathological scar tissue and normal skin tissue, the mRNA and protein expression levels of HIF-1α, VEGF and MMP-2 in pathological scar tissue were significantly increased, and the differences were statistically significant (P 0.05); the mRNA and protein expression levels of MMP-2 in keloid group were significantly lower than those in hypertrophic scar group (P<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between HIF-1α and VEGF, MMP-2 in pathological scar tissues (r=0.623, 0.507, P<0.05). Conclusions The expressions of HIF-1α, VEGF and MMP-2 in pathological scar tissue is obviously increased, which is closely related to the formation of pathological scar. Key words: Cicatrix/PA; Hypoxia-inducible factor 1, alpha subunit/ME; Vascular endothelial growth factors/ME; Matrix metalloproteinase 2/ME