الفهرس 
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Abstract
SUMMARY
A keloid is an abnormal proliferation of scar tissue that forms at the site of cutaneous injury. The fact that some people have keloidal tendency while others don’t remains not fully understood.
Osteopontin (OPN) is a multifunctional matricellular protein produced by a broad range of body cells including T cells, macrophages and fibroblasts, and research has defined a role for osteopontin in maintenance and reconfiguration of tissue integrity during inflammatory processes. Moreover, OPN regulates fibroblast behavior and myofibroblast differentiation. Expression of OPN in normal, healthy skin is low but increased during wound healing.
Whether OPN contributes to the increased incidence of keloidal formation in certain individuals needs to be explored. Therefore, our aim was to study a possible link between OPN expression in serum and tissue and keloid pathogenesis and tendency. To our knowledge this is the first study in published literature to undertake such attempt.
50 patients presenting with keloids were recruited, and followed a specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. 50 subjects not having keloidal tendency, not having any of the exclusion criteria, and age and sex matched with the investigated patients, were used as control population. Serum OPN was measured for all patients and controls.
Serum osteopontin level showed a highly significant statistical increase in patients with keloidal tendency when compared with normal controls. Additionally, highly significant increase of tissue OPN level in
keloidal and non-keloidal skin of patients was found compared with that of normal skin of controls. Additionally, there is a highly significant increase of tissue OPN level in keloidal skin than in non-keloidal skin of same cases.
Accordingly, OPN seems to a significant play a role in keloid formation. and we suggest that serum OPN can be used as a prognostic marker or a risk factor for fibrotic tendencies.
We recommend that patients with fibrotic tendencies should be treated post-trauma by anti-OPN therapy to prevent occurrence of keloid and we also recommend further studies regarding OPN gene polymorphism in patients with keloidal tendency and studies regarding possible increased risk of infection after administering anti-OPN therapy.