Adenoviral overexpression and small interfering RNA suppression demonstrate that plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 produces elevated collagen accumulation in normal and keloid fibroblasts.

Keloids are tumor-like skin scars that grow as a result of the aberrant healing of skin injuries, with no effective treatment. We provide new evidence that both overexpression of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and elevated collagen accumulation are intrinsic features of keloid fibroblasts and that these characteristics are causally linked. Using seven strains each of early passage normal and keloid fibroblasts, the keloid strains exhibited inherently elevated collagen accumulation and PAI-1 expression in serum-free, 0.