Background: Many genes have been shown to affect wound healing in genetically modified animals. However, many inbred strains considered as wild-type show differences in their response to injury. Inbred strains would allow interrogating gene dose effect promising to be more relevant than gene knock out strategy. Our aim is to perform a genome-wide association study of skin wound healing and scar tissue formation in a panel of wild-type inbred strains.
Methodology: We have used 50 strains from the Collaborative Cross (CC), a mouse reference panel that captures 90% of known genetic variation between laboratory mice randomly distributed across the genome. Skin wound healing and scar tissue formation were evaluated via digital imaging and Sirius red histological staining respectively. The association analysis was performed in R using the one-tailed ANOVA F-test genome-wide scan script.
Results: The genome-wide association scan revealed several significant association peaks (lod score>5). For accurate phenotype- genotype correlation, a list of candidate gene products is further tested prior to validation.
Conclusion: This study has provided an integrated view of the potential genetic interactions with skin wound healing and scar tissue formation in an unbiased manner. Candidate genes will be further tested and validated functionally.