Defining a Unique Gene Expression Profile in Mature and Developing Keloids

Keloids are benign, fibroproliferative dermal tumors that typically form due to abnormal wound healing. Current standard of care is generally ineffective and does not prevent recurrence. To characterize keloid scars better understand the mechanism their formation, we performed transcriptomic profiling biopsies from a total 25 subjects diverse racial ethnic origins, 15 whom provided paired non-lesional sample, longitudinal or both. The signature skin resembled control at baseline, but after trauma shifted closely match skin. Peripheral re-biopsied surrounding normal both showed upregulation epithelial mesenchymal transition markers, extracellular matrix organization, collagen genes. These signatures strongly overlapped those healthy healing studies, usually with greater perturbations, reinforcing our understanding keloids as dysregulated exuberant In addition, 219 genes uniquely regulated in keloids, injured uninjured skin, were also identified. This study provides insights into mature developing can act basis for further validation target identification search transformative treatments.