Growth factors in pathologic wound repair in horses

Dermal scarring is an important clinical problem; often leading to adverse effects on function as well as an undesirable cosmetic appearance, it may be related to an imbalance in the cytokine/growth factor profile of the wound environment. For example, it has recently been shown that overexpression of the fibrogenic growth factors transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta (1) and TGF-beta (2) is related to the excessive accumulation of collagen evident in keloids and hypertrophic scars, common forms of pathologic overheating of dermal wounds in humans. Proud flesh in horses resembles human keloids and hypertrophic scarring and may thus share a similar pathogenesis.