Scholarlink

Background <p>Hypertrophic scar (HS) is a common complication following burn injuries. The current evaluation of HS predominantly depends on subjective perception. This study aimed to investigate an objective biomarker for evaluating the proliferative activity and predicting susceptibility to post-burn HS.</p> Methods <p>This retrospective cohort study enrolled 104 burn patients and 16 patients with post-burn HS. Serial serum Angiotensin II (AngII) levels were measured from admission to wound healing (371 measurements total). The primary outcome was the correlation between AngII levels and Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) scores in patients not receiving anti-scar treatment. Propensity score matching was employed to balance confounding factors. In vitro experiments assessed AngII effects on fibroblast proliferation.</p> Results <p>The study found that serum AngII levels follow a dynamic trend from burn injury to wound healing, increasing 2–3 fold during proliferation and remodeling phases and remaining elevated post-healing, aligning with fibroblast activity. In vitro, AngII stimulated fibroblast proliferation. AngII levels correlated with age (P&lt;0.05), being significantly higher in younger patients (200.61 vs 58.32 pg/ml), but not with burn index or sex. In patients with post-burn hypertrophic scars, AngII positively correlated with Vancouver Scar Scale scores (R<sup>2</sup>=0.797). A linear model using AngII to predict VSS scores was developed and validated.</p> Conclusion <p>This first systematic characterization of post-burn serum AngII dynamics reveals that sustained AngII elevation may serve as a biomarker for active HS proliferation. AngII demonstrates potential for predicting individual HS susceptibility and identifying optimal timing for anti-scar therapy, providing a novel molecular basis for future personalized post-burn HS management research.</p> Level of Evidence III <p>This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. 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.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Angiotensin II as a Novel Biomarker in the Assessment and Prediction of Post-burn Hypertrophic Scarring: A Propensity Score-Matched Cohort Study

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月9日

查看全文
  • Xiao-Xu Zhu,
  • Jian-Hui Li,
  • Hui Xing,
  • Yu-Min Li,
  • Bin Chen,
  • Wen-Bin Tang,
  • Yuan Chen,
  • Xiao-Na Xie,
  • Jian Liu,
  • Yi-Ping Hu,
  • Dong Ma,
  • Xiao-Jian Li,
  • Zhi Zhang

摘要

Background

Hypertrophic scar (HS) is a common complication following burn injuries. The current evaluation of HS predominantly depends on subjective perception. This study aimed to investigate an objective biomarker for evaluating the proliferative activity and predicting susceptibility to post-burn HS.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study enrolled 104 burn patients and 16 patients with post-burn HS. Serial serum Angiotensin II (AngII) levels were measured from admission to wound healing (371 measurements total). The primary outcome was the correlation between AngII levels and Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) scores in patients not receiving anti-scar treatment. Propensity score matching was employed to balance confounding factors. In vitro experiments assessed AngII effects on fibroblast proliferation.

Results

The study found that serum AngII levels follow a dynamic trend from burn injury to wound healing, increasing 2–3 fold during proliferation and remodeling phases and remaining elevated post-healing, aligning with fibroblast activity. In vitro, AngII stimulated fibroblast proliferation. AngII levels correlated with age (P<0.05), being significantly higher in younger patients (200.61 vs 58.32 pg/ml), but not with burn index or sex. In patients with post-burn hypertrophic scars, AngII positively correlated with Vancouver Scar Scale scores (R2=0.797). A linear model using AngII to predict VSS scores was developed and validated.

Conclusion

This first systematic characterization of post-burn serum AngII dynamics reveals that sustained AngII elevation may serve as a biomarker for active HS proliferation. AngII demonstrates potential for predicting individual HS susceptibility and identifying optimal timing for anti-scar therapy, providing a novel molecular basis for future personalized post-burn HS management research.

Level of Evidence III

This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. 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.