The contribution of hypoxia to equine dermal scarring

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Traumatic wounds frequently afflict horses, with healing complicated by the development of "proud flesh" leading to extensive scar tissue when these wounds are located on the limb, whilst body wounds tend to repair uneventfully. Impaired healing on the limb poses considerable welfare implications and bears a significant financial impact on the equine industry via the number of horses retired from an athletic career because of extensive scars or persisting lameness.The long term goal of my research program is to clarify some of the basic mechanisms of pathological scarring in the horse. Based on new findings uncovered during my current NSERC Discovery Grant, I suggest that deficient oxygen levels in the wound's microenvironment may contribute to extensive scarring in the horse, as it appears to in man. This proposal aims to verify the inherent response to hypoxia of normal skin cells from the body and the limb; to measure the oxygenation status of wounds of the body, wounds of the limb and wounds having developed proud flesh; and finally, to test the effect of a therapy purported to block the detrimental response of cells to hypoxia.This work will not only help determine some of the mechanisms involved in equine proud flesh, but will also provide a valuable tool to study scarring. Furthermore, data obtained herein may contribute to the development of novel therapeutic approaches for controlling scarring in various organs, in both veterinary species and man.