Effect of Progesterone on Cultured Human Dermal Fibroblast

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The mechanism of scar formation is not fully understood. Fibroblast is an important cell in wound healing process. We experienced a patient who was taking progesterone orally. Upper blepharoplasty was performed on her but, wound healing was delayed. We hypothesized that progesterone was the cause of delayed wound healing and fibroblast proliferation inhibition. We investigated the effect of progesterone in vitro on human dermal fibroblasts to study the effects on fibroblast proliferation. METHODS: Human dermal fibroblasts from four persons were cultured initially. Progesterone is mixed to them at various concentrations, and fibroblast cell count was measured by MTT assay method at 570nm. We confirmed that progesterone has some inhibitory effect on fibroblast proliferation and maximal inhibitory concentration of progesterone was determined. Then fibroblasts from a total of nineteen persons were cultured and the effects of progesterone were studied. RESULTS: The initial study showed the maximal inhibitory concentration of progesterone to be 50 microgram/ml. The main study showed that progesterone had 70.9% inhibitory effect on human dermal fibroblast in vitro. CONCLUSION: Progesterone has inhibitory effect on cultured human dermal fibroblast proliferation in vitro.