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Fibrosis is similar to the process of scarring, in that both involve stimulated fibroblasts laying down connective tissue, including collagen and glycosaminoglycans.The process is initiated when immune cells such as macrophages release soluble factors that stimulate fibroblasts.
In view of the potential clinical applications of stem cell-derived tissues or primary epithelial cells, the use of human fibroblasts as an alternative to MEF feeders has been studied. [14] Whereas the fibroblasts are usually used to maintain pluripotency of the stem cells, they can also be used to facilitate development of the stem cells into ...
When tissue is injured, the predominant mesenchymal cells, the fibroblast, have been believed to be derived from the fibrocyte or possibly from smooth muscle cells lining vessels and glands. Commonly, fibroblasts express smooth muscle actin, a form of actin first found in smooth muscle cells and not found in resting fibrocytes. Fibroblasts ...
Loose and dense irregular connective tissue, formed mainly by fibroblasts and collagen fibers, have an important role in providing a medium for oxygen and nutrients to diffuse from capillaries to cells, and carbon dioxide and waste substances to diffuse from cells back into circulation. They also allow organs to resist stretching and tearing ...
In normal repair, the hyperplastic type II cells die and the remaining cells spread and undergo a differentiation process to become type I cells. Under pathologic conditions and in the presence of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), fibroblasts accumulate in these areas of damage and differentiate into myofibroblasts that secrete collagen ...
Crowded between the collagen fibers are rows of fibroblasts, fiber-forming cells, that generate the fibers. Dense connective tissue forms strong, rope-like structures such as tendons and ligaments. Tendons attach skeletal muscles to bones; ligaments connect bones to bones at joints.
Cardiac fibrosis commonly refers to the excess deposition of extracellular matrix in the cardiac muscle, but the term may also refer to an abnormal thickening of the heart valves due to inappropriate proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts. [1] Fibrotic cardiac muscle is stiffer and less compliant and is seen in the progression to heart failure.
It is secreted by various cells, primarily fibroblasts, as a soluble protein dimer and is then assembled into an insoluble matrix in a complex cell-mediated process. Fibronectin plays a major role in cell adhesion, growth, migration, and differentiation, and it is important for processes such as wound healing and embryonic development. [6]