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. 2025 Feb;49(3):897-907.
doi: 10.1007/s00266-024-04375-6. Epub 2024 Oct 14.

PTB Regulates Keloid Fibroblast Migration and Proliferation Through Autophagy

Rong Huang  1 , Bing Han  2 , Jianzhong Peng  3 , Hu Jiao  4
Affiliations

PTB Regulates Keloid Fibroblast Migration and Proliferation Through Autophagy

Rong Huang et al. Aesthetic Plast Surg. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Keloid disease is a chronic fibroproliferative disease that occurs after tissue injury, and the currently available treatments are unsatisfactory.

Objectives: We aimed to explore the level of autophagy in keloid fibroblasts (KFbs) and adjacent normal fibroblasts (NFbs). In addition, whether polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (PTB) regulates the biological functions of KFbs via autophagy was also investigated.

Methods: The morphology of fibroblasts in normal skin and keloids was observed transmission electron microscopy. We silenced PTB with PTB-specific siRNA to determine whether PTB-regulated KFb proliferation. Acridine orange and LysoTracker Red staining was performed to label acidic compartments. Interestingly, when autophagy was inhibited by wortmannin, the PTB knockdown-mediated decrease in KFb migration and proliferation was abolished, while the collagen I and III levels were not altered; these results indicated that PTB regulated the migration and proliferation of KFbs via autophagy, while collagen synthesis occurred independently of PTB regulation.

Results: Many activities related to the survival and function of KFbs are controlled by PTB. Transmission electron microscopy revealed more autophagosomes and autolysosomes in KFbs than in NFbs. PTB induced autophagy in KFbs, as demonstrated by the significantly greater number of autophagosomes in KFbs after PTB knockdown, which was revealed by acridine orange and LysoTracker staining.

Conclusions: Our study is the first to show that PTB regulates the migration and proliferation of KFbs via autophagy and that PTB regulates collagen synthesis in KFbs in an autophagy-independent manner.

No level assigned: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each submission to which Evidence-Based Medicine rankings are applicable. This excludes Review Articles, Book Reviews, and manuscripts that concern Basic Science, Animal Studies, Cadaver Studies, and Experimental Studies. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Keywords: Autophagy; Fibroblast; Keloid; Polypyrimidine tract‐binding protein.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Ethical Approval: All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the ethics committee of our hospital. Informed Consent: Informed consent was obtained from the patients to publish the data obtained from them.

References

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