Is survivin a novel pathway for the treatment and pathogenesis of keloid?

Keloids behave like benign tumors as they grow beyond the boundaries of the original wound margin, do not regress spontaneously, and recur despite treatments. Recently, accumulating evidences showed that survivin played an important role in cell growth, apoptotic resistance, and cell cycle control. More than that, survivin was confirmed to be associated with tumor angiogenesis and chemoresistance. Survivin blocker therapy has been proved to be a novel treatment in some kinds of tumors. Our preliminary work showed that survivin expression was significantly higher in keloids than in normal skin. The mRNA and protein levels of survivin were downregulated in keloid fibroblasts by survivin-siRNA. Therefore, we hypothesize that survivin has a profound effect on keloid formation and progression. Therefore, survivin may be a potential therapeutic target for keloids. Our hypothesis sheds light for the first time on the role of survivin involves in keloid pathophysiology and provides with novel therapeutic implications for keloids that are associated with apoptosis.