The Expression Level And Position Of BFGF And EGF In Wound Healing Of Rat Skin And Transplanted Oral Mucosa

Background：Skin wound healing in adult humans after full-thickness injury resultsin scar formation. Oral mucosal wounds exhibit accelerated healing and minimalscarring when compared with cutaneous wounds. Therefore, the wound healingprocess in oral mucosa can provide valuable information for skin wound to improvewound healing. Wound repair is a result of the interaction among growth factors,cells and extracellular matrix in each period and growth factors play an importantrole in this process.Objective: To study the growth factors bFGF and EGF expression in transplantedoral mucosa and skin during the process of wound repair, which provides the basisfor clinical prevention of scar formation and improves the quality of wound healing.Methods: The rat tongue was transplanted to the right side of the rat abdominal skin.After3weeks of transplantation, full-thickness incised wounds were made in thetransplanted oral mucosa and the left control position. Rats were sacrificed at0h,12h,1d,2d,3d,4d,5d,6d and7d after wounds. Real-time quantitative PCR andimmunohistochemistry were applied to measure the gene and protein expressionlevels of bFGF and EGF.Results:1. The experimental groups healed faster than the control groups with minor scars.2. Real-time quantitative PCR results showed that the bFGF expression in theexperimental group was much higher at12h wounds (P≤0.05) and the expressionwas similar to the normal group at3d wounds. EGF expressions were lower in thefirst three day’s wounds and the expressions were significantly increased from3d to5d wound. The expression in the experimental group was much higher than thecontrol group from3d to5d wounds (P≤0.05)3. Immunohistochemical results showed that bFGF expression was shown in theepidermis and dermis layers. Similar to quantitative PCR results the bFGFexpression was significantly higher than that in the control group at12h wounds.EGF was mainly expressed in the epithelium. The expression in the experimental group was also much higher than the control group from3d to5d wounds (P≤0.05)Conclusion:1. bFGF expression was significantly increased at wounds beginning and thendecreased gradually indicated that bFGF could promote cell migration and formationof new blood vessels in the early stage of wound healing.2. EGF expression was in a low level in the first three days wounds and showedenhanced expression from3d to5d wounds indicated that EGF play an active role inthe proliferation of epidermal cells.3The quantitative PCR results were in agreement with the immunohistochemicalresults indicating the similar expressions levels of mRNA and protein.