Adult wounds heal with scar-tissue formation, whereas fetal wounds heal without scarring and with a lesser inflammatory and cytokine response. We injected the margins of healing dermal wounds in adult rats with neutralising antibody (NA) to transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta). All control wounds (irrelevant antibody, or TGF-beta, or no injection) healed with scarring, whereas the NA-treated wounds healed without scar-tissue formation; NA-treated wounds had fewer macrophages and blood vessels, lower collagen and fibronectin contents, but identical tensile strength and more normal dermal architecture than the other wounds. Early manipulation of the concentrations of selected cytokines may be a new approach to the control of scarring.