About this Research Topic
I would like to compile a Research Topic on the key cell types involved in fibrosis. Fibrosis is a hot area of pre-clinical research as there are no known anti-fibrotics available to patients and fibrosis is a symptoms of almost every chronic disease. There are common pathways of fibrosis between organs such as activated fibroblast and myofibroblasts, pro-fibrotic macrophages and circulating collagen producing cells. Therefore this research article will assimilate the current state of knowledge in fibrotic tissue remodeling and how key cell types promote and maintain excess scar tissue, which ultimately results in tissue stiffening and loss of function. A large body of work is being done in lung fibrosis, in particular idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Therefore the first few articles will focus on cell types involved in cell types in the lung. Then subsequent articles will focus on tissue-specific cells and how they affect disease, for example, hepatic stellate cells and NASH/ Hepatitis, renal pericytes and diabetic nephropathy and chronic kidney disease, cardiac myocytes and post-MI fibrosis. All of the cell types listed below have intimate links with the immune response and this is changed in patients with fibrotic diseases.
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