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September 2009
The strange coolness of scars
By Rob Gourdie
As a kid, I'd take pride in comparing my scars to those of my buddies - healed dog bites, marks from past bike crashes, minor burns and so on. There is something fascinating and cool about these natural products of the healing process.
It is ironic then, as a grown-up professor, heading a research lab, that I find myself having a second childhood of sorts, again spending time staring at and thinking about scars. My lab in the Department of Regenerative Medicine and Darby Children's Research Institute (DCRI) at MUSC is focused on scarring - in particular, how to reduce it.
Accumulating scar tissue is part of the normal process of living - but what if it was not? What if we could find a way to heal without having scars? Obviously, one would have to forgo the pleasures of showing off old battle wounds to friends - but there are more important benefits of stopping scar tissue from forming.
Scar tissue resulting from spinal cord injury is a major cause of paralysis. Even small amounts in the tissues of the eye (cornea, lens, retina) can result in blindness. Scar tissue in the brain and heart causes bio-electrical diseases such as epilepsy and fatal arrhythmias. Scar around devices placed in the body by doctors, such as arterial stents often result in the rejection of medical implants.
What about children? Now that many kids born with heart birth defects are surviving into adulthood following corrective procedures, pediatric cardiologists are finding that scars from old surgeries sometimes lead to cardiac dysrhythmias. Surgeons are keen to nip such slow developing problems in the bud and would welcome safe, scar-inhibiting drugs that could be applied following heart surgery.
Scar tissue is so broadly problematic that it's actually hard not to go on and on, listing it as a root cause of trouble in medical issue after medical issue.
This brings me back to skin wounds. During the course of basic research into cellular processes of the last 15 years, my laboratory in the DCRI has developed a novel drug that shows promise for inhibiting scar formation following injury to the skin.
A biotechnology company spun-off from MUSC, led by my former post-doc Dr. Gautam Ghatnekar, DVM, PhD with FirstString Research Inc, is completing phase I clinical trials in Switzerland using our drug. Results from a preliminary "open-label" study with three patients were encouraging, with no sign of safety issues. FirstString is now awaiting the outcome of a double-blind trial with 48 patients.
Dr. Ghatnekar, together with Mrs. Jane Jourdan, outstanding technician, and I, are co-discoverers of the anti-scarring drug. The next step will be to obtain approval from the FDA for proceeding to a larger and more expensive phase II clinical trial.
To assist with the goal of getting to Phase II trials, FirstString has recruited Mr. Jim McNabb as its executive chairman. Mr. McNabb is an experienced business professional with a long track-record of successfully shepherding medical innovations from the lab to the bedside.
In conclusion, the skin is a great model system for testing drugs promoting scar-free healing. What we learn from our experiments in skin, we hope to apply to healing of other, harder-to-study organs such as the eye, heart and brain. The long-term goal of the lab is to lessen suffering from paralysis, blindness and improve longevity and quality of life following incidents such as eye trauma, heart attack or brain injury.
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Inderjit Singh, PhD
Scientific Director
Darby Children's Research Inst. |
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Rob Gourdie, PhD
Professor, Primary is Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology
Darby Children's Research Inst. |
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