Wonder drug could prevent scarring

Published on Thursday 9 April 2009 21:34

A NEW healing drug has the potential to prevent unsightly surgery scars, research has shown.

The drug, a synthetic cell- signalling agent, is injected under the skin at the site of the wound before and after an incision. In tests, it significantly improved the appearance of scars as judged by panels of lay volunteers and experts.

Earlier research had identified transforming growth factor beta3 (TGFbeta3), a cytokine signalling molecule that sends messages between cells, as a possible anti-scarring therapy.

Three trials of the treatment were conducted on groups of volunteers who willingly suffered centimetre-wide puncture wounds in their arms. The incisions were deep enough to penetrate through the skin to underlying muscle.

Varying doses of the drug avotermin, an artificial form of TGFbeta3, were injected at the wound site both before and 24 hours after the incisions were made. Scarring appearance was assessed using a 100-point scale. The higher the number given, the more noticeable the scar was judged to be.

Trial participants ranged widely in age and were split into two groups, one receiving the anti-scarring therapy and the other a dummy treatment.

In two trials, lower doses of the drug improved scarring appearance by up to eight points after 12 months.

A third trial using higher doses resulted in improvements of as much as 64 points on the visual assessment scale.

Avotermin affected the orientation, density and thickness of the collagen fibres that cause scarring, the studies showed.

Professor Mark Ferguson, from the University of Manchester, and colleagues wrote in The Lancet medical journal: "We detected substantial differences in collagen organisation in some participants, with avotermin-treated scars more closely resembling the basket-weave pattern of normal skin."