Therapeutic downregulation of neuronal PAS domain 2 (Npas2) promotes surgical skin wound healing
Abstract
Attempts to minimize scarring remain among the most difficult challenges facing surgeons, despite the use of optimal wound closure techniques. Previously, we reported improved healing of dermal excisional wounds in circadian clock neuronal PAS domain 2 (Npas2)-null mice. In this study, we performed high-throughput drug screening to identify a compound that downregulates Npas2 activity. The hit compound (Dwn1) suppressed circadian Npas2 expression, increased murine dermal fibroblast cell migration, and decreased collagen synthesis in vitro. Based on the in vitro results, Dwn1 was topically applied to iatrogenic full-thickness dorsal cutaneous wounds in a murine model. The Dwn1-treated dermal wounds healed faster with favorable mechanical strength and developed less granulation tissue than the controls. The expression of type I collagen, Tgfb1, and a-smooth muscle actin was significantly decreased in Dwn1-treated wounds, suggesting that hypertrophic scarring and myofibroblast differentiation are attenuated by Dwn1 treatment. NPAS2 may represent an important target for therapeutic approaches to optimal surgical wound management.
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Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Annenberg Foundation
- Reza Jarrahy
Plastic Surgery Foundation
- Akishige Hokugo
UCLA (Innovation Fund)
- Ichiro Nishimura
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Mone Zaidi, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All protocols for animal experiments were approved by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Animal Research Committee (ARC# 2003-009) and followed the Public Health Service Policy for the Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the UCLA Animal Care and Use guidelines.
Version history
- Received: June 8, 2021
- Preprint posted: December 1, 2021 (view preprint)
- Accepted: January 14, 2022
- Accepted Manuscript published: January 18, 2022 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: January 25, 2022 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2022, Shibuya et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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