Comparative study of keloid formation in humans and laboratory animals.

Background: Keloids are common lesions arising from sites of a previous trauma, and are distinguishable from scars by the presence of continuous growth over the borders of the original injury. The objective of this article is to improve methods for studying keloids using experimental animal models, which may help to promote wound-healing research and to attain suitable management of keloids.

Material/methods: This study consisted of two parts: animal and tissue culture experiments. Experimentally induced wounds in animal models were used to investigate keloid formation. Tissue cultures of cells in a conditioned medium were used to compare the growth rates of fibroblasts obtained from normal skin and wounds of experimental animals or from normal human skin and keloids.

Results: Since keloids are common in humans, hypertrophic scars rather than keloids were observed in animal skin wounds. Data from the tissue culture study demonstrated an increase in fibroblasts cells in human keloid cultures, but not in animal wound cultures.

Conclusions: Studying keloids in experimental animals may be more efficient, cheaper, and more practical than to study them in humans. Furthermore, the use of tissue culture is a suitable medium in which to study keloid cell behavior in order to understand the mechanisms leading to the formation of keloids and to attain appropriate, effective management.