Activation markers of connective tissue in Dupuytren's contracture: relation to postoperative outcome.

We investigated 103 consecutive patients operated on for Dupuytren's contracture (DC) to find out the relation between the expression of activation markers of connective tissue in surgical specimens obtained prospectively and recurrence of disease. The history of the disease and present state of the operated hand were obtained a mean of 4 years (range 2.5-6) after the latest operation. Immunohistochemical staining for anticollagen type IV, integrin alpha5, laminin, smooth muscle beta-actin, procollagen type I, and desmin was evaluated. Almost half of the patients noticed recurrences during the study period, one fifth within six months of operation. No differences in the expression of any of the markers investigated were found, either earlier or later than six months postoperatively, in patients with or without recurrent bending. Furthermore, there were no associations between sex, age at onset, number of operations, heredity, diabetes mellitus, or drugs taken for cardiovascular disease, and the expression of any of the immunohistochemical markers. The individual characteristics that place a person at high risk are not obviously related to ongoing production of connective tissue at the time of operation or to connective tissue activity in its conventionally-used sense.