Basic fibroblast growth factor reduces scar formation in acute incisional wounds.

In order to identify a means to reduce scar formation of the skin after incision, this study examined the effect of local administration of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in humans. bFGF was administered to a sutured wound immediately after an operation. The drug was injected once into the dermis of the margins of wounds using a 27G needle or rinsing after performing dermostitches. The lengths of the treated wounds varied from 1 to 32 cm, and the subjects were 2-86 years old. Sutured wounds after excision of skin tumors from the face, trunk, and limbs and sutured wounds such as those at the donor sites of full-thickness skin grafts were treated with low-dose bFGF injections (0.1 microg/cm wound; Group 2), high-dose bFGF injections (1 microg/cm wound; Group 3), and rinsed with high-dose bFGF (1 microg/cm wound; Group 4). No patient treated with bFGF had hypertrophic scars, while some patients had hypertrophic or very wide scars in the control group (Group 1), and the ratios of minimum scarring of Group 2 (p<0.001), Group 3 (p<0.0001), and Group 4 (p<0.0001) were statistically significantly higher than those of Group 1. Postoperative administration of bFGF inhibited hypertrophic scarring and widening of remaining scars without any serious side effects.

The real-time, three-dimensional analyses of benign and malignant skin tumors by confocal laser scanning microscopy.

BACKGROUND: In obtain images of skin tumors non-invasively with real-time, confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) is introduced. OBJECTIVE: Reconstructed images of given horizontal sections were converted into three-dimensions using the data set of a large number of tomograms in the horizontal directions. METHODS: To develop the multiplaner reconstruction images of skin tumors in vertical directions and three-dimensionally reconstructed images of tumors will be obtained from the continuously collected horizontal image data sets. RESULTS: Three-dimensional analyses of the skin tumors from reconstructed images of the CLSM scanning have provided the information as to their physiological characteristics as well as the extent of deep invasion in real-time with non-invasive manner. High performance three-dimensional conversion software was effective in displaying three-dimensional construction of skin tumors. CONCLUSION: The CLSM scanning images followed by three-dimensional reconstruction using them can provide the real-time and non-invasive diagnoses of skin tumors and analyze the radial growth phase of tumors and the three-dimensional growth characteristics.