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ABSTRACT
Purpose: FBP1, one of the far-upstream element binding proteins(FBPs), is a distal upstream binding protein of c-myc, which is highly expressed in tumor tissues. This study aimed to investigate FBP1 expression in human hypertrophic scars and to determine the effects of FBP1 on fibroblasts. Materials and methods: Human normal skin and scar specimens were collected during clinical surgery. One portion of each tissue specimen was embedded in paraffin and sliced to observe differences in histological features and FBP1 expression by immunohistochemistry and western blotting. The other portion of each tissue specimen was cultured to obtain fibroblasts. Fibroblasts from the second to the sixth passage were used for the experiments, which were divided into the following two groups: an experimental group, whose cells were transfected with an siRNA targeting FBP1, and a control group, whose cells where not transfected. MTT and TUNEL assays were performed, respectively, to assess fibroblast proliferation and apoptosis, and western blotting was performed to assess protein expression. Results: We obtained fibroblasts by primary tissue culture and found that FBP1 was highly expressed in hypertrophic scars. MTT assay showed that an siRNA targeting FBP1 significantly reduced fibroblast proliferation in siRNA-treated cells compared to control cells. TUNEL assay showed that there was no difference in apoptosis between the two groups; however, western blotting showed that collagen I, collagen III, c-myc, caspase-3, and caspase-9 expression levels were all decreased in the experimental group. Conclusion: FBP1 is highly expressed in human hypertrophic scars and increases fibroblast proliferation, apoptosis and collagen expression.
Acknowledgments
We thank Prof. Dong Huang for his support and assistance with this study and Dr. Jiangchao Li, Guangzhou Exon Biotechnology Co., Ltd. for his assistance. We would also like to thank the doctors and students from Guangdong No. 2 People’s Hospital for their assistance with specimen collection.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.
Funding
This study was supported by a grant from the Science and Technology Project of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2016A020215124).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Jieyi Zuo
Jieyi Zuo designed and performed the experiments and wrote the paper. Chen analyzed the data. Zhong provided technical support. Lan and Kuang contributed to the data collection. All authors have approved the final manuscript.