Negative Regulation of GADD34 on Myofibroblasts during Cutaneous Wound Healing

The growth arrest and DNA damage-inducible protein, GADD34, has been proved to be involved in TGF-β signaling pathway and correlates with cell death, which are two important mechanisms in regulating myofibroblast differentiation and apoptosis during tissue repair. But roles of GADD34 in myofibroblasts differentiation and apoptosis remain unknown. To investigate the function of GADD34 in these processes, we subjected WT and GADD34(−/−) mice to dermal wound healing. Here we show that GADD34(−/−) mice exhibited accelerated wound closure compared with WT mice. In addition, GADD34(−/−) mice showed increased number of myofibroblasts, elevated collagen production, and decreased cell apoptosis during wound healing. Moreover, we found that GADD34(−/−) mice showed increased phosphorylation of Smad3 and lower level of cleaved caspase-3. Thus these results indicate that GADD34 appears to suppress myofibroblast differentiation through inhibiting Smad3-dependent TGFβ signal pathway and promote its apoptosis by activating caspase-3 pathway.