Longitudinal Study of Scar Hyperplasia Formation Following Cleft Lip Wound Healing

The purpose of this study was to observe the hyperplasia trend of scar after the cleft lip surgery in a rabbit animal model, and determine the time-point of the highest hypertrophic degree of scar after cleft lip repair. Forty New Zealand white rabbits from the same offspring were used to establish a cleft lip wound healing model using Millard surgery procedure. The scar volumes were measured and granulation tissues were observed visually in the 2, 3, 4, and 5 weeks after operation. The scar tissues were harvested at the indicated time-points. Immunohistochemical (IHC) and Western Blot analyses were performed to detect the expression level of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in the scar tissue. The scars shrunk and the volumes reduced at 3 to 4 weeks after surgery; however, at 5 weeks postsurgery, the volumes increased. IHC and Western blot analyses indicated the expression of α-SMA was significantly enhanced 3 to 4 weeks, but reduced in the 5 weeks after surgery. Overall, the degree of scar hyperplasia after cleft lip surgery in rabbits was normally distributed and the scarring was most severe in the 3 to 4 weeks after cleft lip surgery. The study confirms a novel animal model for the assessment of therapies for the treatment of scar hyperplasia of human cleft lip in future. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Wen-lin Xiao, PhD, MD, Department of Stomatology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University; The Key Laboratory of Oral Medicine, Shandong Province Education Department; No. 16, Jiangsu Road, Qingdao 266003, the People's Republic of China; E-mail: wenlinxiao@sina.com Received 3 June, 2017 Accepted 29 November, 2017 D-zZ and FL contributed equally to this work. This work was financially supported by Natural Science foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2015HM022). The authors report no conflicts of interes. © 2018 by Mutaz B. Habal, MD.

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