Is Dupuytren's disease caused by an imbalance between proliferation and cell death?

Dupuytren's contracture shares certain properties with malignant tumours, c haracterized by proliferation and lack of apoptosis, which may be induced b y the c-myc oncogene, Because of these similarities, the relationship betwe en the c-myc oncogene expression, bcl-2 oncogene (anti-apoptotic gene) and proliferation was investigated in Dupuytren's disease. Proliferation was as sessed by immunohistochemical staining of the mib-1 antibody. Results were compared with those from fibrosarcoma specimens, representing a related mal ignant tumour, Non-diseased fascia from Dupuytren patients and flexor retin aculum from patients undergoing carpal tunnel release without Dupuytren's d isease were used as controls. Expression of c-myc was elevated in primary D upuytren's disease and fibrosarcoma specimens, whilst recurrent Dupuytren's disease, non-diseased Dupuytren fascia and flexor retinaculum exhibited si gnificantly lower levels. Neither bcl-2 nor mib-1 were detected in Dupuytre n's disease, non-diseased fascia or flexor retinaculum, in contrast to fibr osarcoma. The imbalance between proliferation and apoptosis, producing mali gnant growth was thus confirmed for fibrosarcoma, but not for Dupuytren's d isease.