Xu Yang, Zhan Weisheng, Zhao Juhua
Department of Dermatology, Nanchong Central Hospital, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China.
College of Clinical Medicine, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China.
Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2025 Jul 29;18:1817-1826. doi: 10.2147/CCID.S532061. eCollection 2025.
Pathological scars are the products of abnormal repair during the wound healing process. Previous researches have demonstrated that immune cells and inflammatory cytokines are closely associated with pathological scars. However, the causality between immune cells, inflammatory cytokines and pathological scars remains unclear.
After obtaining genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data on immune cells, cytokines, hypertrophic scars, and keloids, we selected appropriate single - nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method was used as the main analytical method. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to evaluate reliability of research findings.
Our research results indicated that 10 immunophenotypes can increase risk of hypertrophic scars, 5 immunophenotypes can decrease risk of hypertrophic scars, 3 inflammatory cytokines can increase risk of hypertrophic scars, and 2 inflammatory cytokines can decrease risk of hypertrophic scars. Meanwhile, 5 immunophenotypes can increase risk of keloids, 4 immunophenotypes can decrease risk of keloids, 1 inflammatory cytokine can increase risk of keloids, and 1 inflammatory cytokine can decrease risk of keloids.
This study reveals the roles of immune phenotypes and cytokines in the pathogenesis of pathological scars, and provides valuable references in research areas such as early identification and intervention treatment of pathological scars.
病理性瘢痕是伤口愈合过程中异常修复的产物。以往研究表明，免疫细胞和炎性细胞因子与病理性瘢痕密切相关。然而，免疫细胞、炎性细胞因子与病理性瘢痕之间的因果关系仍不明确。
获取关于免疫细胞、细胞因子、增生性瘢痕和瘢痕疙瘩的全基因组关联研究（GWAS）数据后，我们选择合适的单核苷酸多态性（SNP）进行孟德尔随机化（MR）分析。采用逆方差加权（IVW）法作为主要分析方法。进行敏感性分析以评估研究结果的可靠性。
我们的研究结果表明，10种免疫表型可增加增生性瘢痕风险，5种免疫表型可降低增生性瘢痕风险，3种炎性细胞因子可增加增生性瘢痕风险，2种炎性细胞因子可降低增生性瘢痕风险。同时，5种免疫表型可增加瘢痕疙瘩风险，4种免疫表型可降低瘢痕疙瘩风险，1种炎性细胞因子可增加瘢痕疙瘩风险，1种炎性细胞因子可降低瘢痕疙瘩风险。
本研究揭示了免疫表型和细胞因子在病理性瘢痕发病机制中的作用，并为病理性瘢痕的早期识别和干预治疗等研究领域提供了有价值的参考。
