Rj. Alioto et al., COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF GROWTH-FACTORS ON FIBROBLASTS OF DUPUYTRENS TISSUE AND NORMAL PALMAR FASCIA, The Journal of hand surgery, 19A(3), 1994, pp. 442-452
Recent experimental evidence implicates various growth factors in the
pathophysiology of Dupuytren's disease. This study describes a techniq
ue to produce an in vitro cell culture system from both normal palmar
fascia and Dupuytren's fascia. The cells were separately exposed to ba
sic fibroblast growth factor (bFCF), transforming growth factor beta (
TGF-beta), and platelet-derived growth factor (PDCF), after which the
effects of these growth factors on proliferation rate and collagen pro
duction were determined. Basic FCF and PDCF were found to be mitogenic
for both cell types, and TGF-beta was a potent stimulator of collagen
production for both cell types. There were quantitative and qualitati
ve differences between the cell types, with Dupuytren cells being more
metabolically active and more sensitive to the growth factors tested.
We present a theoretical model based on previous investigations and i
ncorporating the contribution of growth factors as it relates to the p
athophysiology of Dupuytren's disease.