COL1A2 and systemic sclerosis: To examine whether paclitaxel treatment affected collagen deposition in SSc skin grafts, we performed quantitative TaqMan real-time reverse transcription-PCR (TRT-PCR) for COL1A2. Instructively, the expression of COL1A2—a gene whose promoter contains multiple Smad-binding elements (SBE)—was reduced by 4.5-fold (p < 0.01) with paclitaxel treatment in SSC grafts, reaching a level that approximated COL1A2 mRNA expression in normal skin grafts.