Abstract:

BACKGROUND: It is the specific phenomenon that scarless fetal skin wound healing after a certain stage of fetal development process, and its mechanism is not yet clear. Research suggests that the fetus in a specific state of developmental biology may be the root cause of this phenomenon.
OBJECTIVE: To study human fetal and adult skin of differentially expressed genes and their characteristics and possible biological significance using gene microarray.
METHODS: The total DNA and RNA from fetus (gestational age 20-24 weeks) skin and adults (18-48 years old) normal skins were isolated and purified to mRNA by oligotex. They were reversely transcribed to cDNA with the incorporation of fluorescent dTUP to prepare the hybridization probes. Then, the mixed probes were hybridized to the cDNA chip and scanned for the signals and found differences between fetal skin and adult normal skin.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Gene chips high-throughput revealed the differential expression of genetic information of the fetal and adult skins. Compared gene expression in normal adult skin, fetal skin, and significant differences in gene expression of 83 genes had clear functions in 26, involving a variety of signal transduction and gene regulation changes. Wound healing lead to excessive scar is a complex pathophysiological process, the presence of genes’ differences between fetal and adult normal skin may lead to fetal wounds heal without scar formation, help to understand the mechanism of the formation of abnormal scars.