A role for CREB5 in skin wound healing

Compared with skin wounds, oral mucosal wounds heal more quickly, with minimal scarring, faster re-epithelialization, and reduced inflammation. One differentiating factor may be the differential transcription factor-associated gene networks involved in tissue regeneration. One such transcription factor, BATF3, was recently shown by us to promote wound-healing responses in vitro and in vivo. Our prior analyses also suggest that CREB5 is a differentially regulated transcription factor in oral wounds and may be involved in early wound-healing gene expression programs. CREB5 expression was induced in immortalized skin keratinocytes (HaCaT) to examine its effect on in vitro wound healing relative to immortalized gingival keratinocytes (TIGK). CREB5 overexpression let to differential expression of predicted downstream genes and improved skin keratinocyte migration in vitro. This work suggests that examining transcription factors and gene networks that regulate wound-healing responses in the oral mucosa may lead to the discovery of novel targets to improve skin wound healing.