Investigations into Paediatric Scar Biology
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Studies to Investigate the Molecular Mechanisms of Scar Formation, Within the Department of Paediatric Plastic Surgery, Great Ormond Street Hospital
IRAS ID
142639
Contact name
Ryan O'Shaughnessy
Contact email
Research summary
This work aims to expand our understanding of the process of scar formation in the skin. One problem in studying scarring is being able to compare the scarred skin to the unscarred skin before it was wounded, as we can not predict when wounds will occur.
We will ask patients who are undergoing a particular set of operations (for ear reconstruction) to let us use small skin samples taken from the abdomen during their surgery, and blood samples taken at the same time, to analyse how their surgical scar develops over time. The operations always require incisions to be made in the abdomen to retrieve rib cartilage (from either the left or right side) for the new ear to be constructed from. Taking skin samples from these incisions will not change the patients’ outcomes, or alter the way their abdominal scars develop, and the patients will not need to attend any more clinic appointments than they would normally for routine surgery. The tests we do on them will be conducted in laboratories to examine how their cells behave.
Hopefully the results of these experiments will help us to understand better which genes and cell molecules are activated in the scarring process, and how this varies with good scars and bad scars (such as hypertrophic or keloid scars). If we can identify new genes that are involved in scar formation they may give us potential targets for drugs or gene therapies in the future to help minimise the effect of scars, both physical and psychological.
REC name
London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/0106
Date of REC Opinion
24 Feb 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion