The effect of the anti-allergic agent avil on abnormal scar fibroblasts

Abnormal wound healing in humans leads to the formation of hypertrophic sca r and keloids. These abnormal scars accumulate excessive extracellular matr ix proteins through increased synthesis as well as decreased degradation. I n order to find a therapeutic control for scar formation, we investigated t he effect of avil (pheniramine maleate) on fibroblasts cultured from abnorm al scars in comparison to normal skin. We observed a decrease in the prolif eration rate in cells from normal skin (39%), hypertrophic scar (44%),:kelo id (63%) and in DNA synthesis in cells from normal skin (50%), hypertrophic scar (55%) and keloid (63%) treated with 8 mM avil (72 h). The rate of dec rease in collagen synthesis in normal skin (44%), hypertrophic scar (74%) a nd keloid fibroblast (73%) correlated with changes in DNA synthesis. (C) 19 99 Elsevier Science Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.