1999 年 48 巻 3 号 p. 190-198
Control of scar contraction is very important in surgery. In oral and maxillofacial surgery, the surgical treatment can resultin a functional disorder for example, scar contraction of the front palate may cause less growth of the maxilla after palatoplasty.
We have reported that a connective tissue model (CTM) can reflect the mechanism of wound contraction. On the other hand, recently, it has been reported that growth factors secreted by epithelial cells inhibit scar contraction.
In this study, it was attempted to determine if a conditioned medium of cultured epithelial cells (CM) affects the contraction potency of CTM. In the culture process, CTM gradually decreased in size due to the tractional force of fibroblasts which affected collagen and rearranged the collagen fibrils. However, CTM cultured with CM inhibited the contraction in comparison with the control. The inhibition of CTM contraction was released when the culture medium was changed from CM to the control medium. Thus this effect is a reversible reaction.
CM was used under affinity chromatography and eluted stepwise by different concentrations of salt in the elution buffer (0.5 mole, 1.0 mole, 1.5 mole, respectively). Each fraction was concentrated to a pellet. Each pellet was dissolved in normal medium, and 10 % FBS was added. When CTM was cultured with these three mediums, two mediums (0.5 mole, 1.0 mole) inhibited CTM contraction. After chromatography of CM, the separated three fractions were applied to an SDS-polyacrylamide gel. Some bands were the same in 0.5 mole and 1.0 mole fractions. The inhibitor of CTM contraction may exist in these bands.
It is being attemped to determine the inhibitory factors of CTM contraction.