Extracellular matrix analysis of human keloid scars

Fibrosis is vaguely described as connective tissue deposition that can be excessive in pathological conditions. This suggests a quantitative spectrum of fibrosis wherein there can be more or less extracellular matrix (ECM), which in the context of a repairing skin wound could reflect the range from normal scar to keloid. This depiction, however, does not encompass the potential qualitative differences between normal and pathological scars. In keloids, the markedly different physical (hard and dense) and histological (hyalinization) characteristics compared to normal scars indicate an altered and inappropriate matrix, rather than simply too much. With this quantitative discovery-based proteomics we provide a thorough molecular description of keloid lesions relative to normal scars, which is an essential step towards our understanding of this problem.