[Activity detection and immunohistochemistry study on xanthine oxidase in pathological scars].

OBJECTIVE: To study the change of xanthine oxidase in pathological scars. METHODS: The tissues of hypertrophic scar (10 cases), keloid (10 cases) and normal skin (8 cases) were collected for this project, in which the content of malonaldehyde, the activity of xanthine oxidase and total of antioxidant capacity were detected by spectrophotometric method. The expression of xanthine oxidase was evaluated by immunohistochemistry technique. RESULTS: Compared with normal skin tissue, the content of malonaldehyde and xanthine oxidase activity were significantly higher in pathological scars (P < 0.05), but no significant difference was observed in the decrease of total antioxidant capacity. Differences in above-mentioned indexes all were not remarkable between hypertrophic scars and keloids. Immunohistochemical study indicated that the expressions of xanthine oxidase in the epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts of pathological scars increased markedly in contrast with normal skin (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The xanthine oxidase activity shows to be increased in pathological scars, and the xanthine oxidase expressions are enlarged in epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts of pathological scars, which may be a reason resulting in the increase of free excessive growth of scar tissues. radical level, and may play a role in pathogenesis of excessive growth of scar tissues.