3.3. Scar Formation
Scar, the formation of fibrous tissue after wound healing of
large skin injury in adults may result in abnormal skin function
as well as psychological trauma. Curcumin rapidly induces
the synthesis of heme-oxygenease-1, a well-known marker
of intracellular stress in human skin fibroblasts [56,57]. The
direct induction of heme-oxygenease-1 and coinduction of heat
shock protein shows that curcumin has an effect on wound
healing, cellular aging, and other functional characteristics,
such as differentiation, angiogenesis, as well as scar formation
[58]. Scharstuhl et al. showed that high dose of curcumin can
provide a novel way to modulate pathological scar formation
through the induction of fibroblast apoptosis. Curcumin act as
a putative apoptosis inducing factor by inducing heme-oxygenase
activity and its effector molecules [59]. Therefore, treatment
with curcumin provides a novel way to modulate pathological
scar formation through the induction of fibroblast
apoptosis [59]. Furthermore, curcumin act similar to cathepsin-
inducing drugs by increasing the cell proliferation, migration,
and expression of surrogate markers of apoptosis, which
may be beneficial in the treatment of fibrosis [60].