BACKGROUND:Studies have shown that cytokine inhibitor pirfenidone can inhibit biological activity of fibroblasts by regulating a variety of cytokines. It has made good progress in the research and application of anti-fibrosis of internal organs, but the effect and mechanism for hypertrophic scars and skin fibroblasts are unclear. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of pirfenidone on human hypertrophic scar fibroblasts. METHODS:Human hypertrophic scar fibroblasts were cultured using tissue culture method. Passages 3-6 cel s grew wel in the logarithmic growth phase were col ected. Cel s were divided into the control group (0 g/L pirfenidone), 0.15, 0.3 and 1 g/L pirfenidone groups according to different mass concentrations. Cel s were intervened for 12, 36 and 48 hours. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:MTT, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay results demonstrated that compared with the control group, cel proliferation, transforming growth factorβ1 mRNA expression, types I and III col agen secretion were decreased in the 0.15, 0.3 and 1 g/L pirfenidone groups (P<0.05), and the decrease was most significant in the 1 g/L pirfenidone group (P<0.05). At 24, 48 and 72 hours after intervention, significant differences in inhibitory rate of cel proliferation and the secretion of types I and III col agen were detected among 0.15, 0.3 and 1 g/L pirfenidone groups (P<0.05). Results confirmed that pirfenidone apparently inhibited the secretion of col agen of hypertrophic scar fibroblasts cultured in vitro, transforming growth factorβ1 expression and cel proliferation and viability.