Effect of Endogenous Stimuli-Responsive Separating Microneedles to Inhibit Hypertrophic Scar on Rabbit Ear

Hypertrophic scar (HS) considerably affects the appearance and causes tissue dysfunction in patients. Here we show a separating microneedle (MN) consisting of photo-crosslinked GelMA and 5-FuA-Pep-MA prodrug in response to high reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and overexpression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the HS pathological microenvironment. RNA sequencing analyses confirm that drug-loaded MNs could reverse skin fibrosis through down-regulation of BCL-2-associated death promoter (BAD), insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) pathways, simultaneously regulate inflammatory response and keratinocyte differentiation via up-regulation of toll-like receptors (TOLL), interleukin-1 receptor (IL1R) and keratinocyte pathways. To elucidate the RNA changes associated with drug-loaded MNs on HS, we performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis using rabbit ear normal skin (NS), rabbit ear HS tissues, HS tissues with drug-loaded MNs, and HS tissues with 5-Fu injection treatment. Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for HS versus NS, HS with drug-loaded MNs versus HS, and HS with 5-Fu injection versus HS.