fibrosis is the pathological condition resulting in the growth of excess fibrous connective tissue in an organ or body system as a reparative or reactive process. in the field of clinical pathology, clinicians and medical scientists are endeavoring to translate experimental knowledge into effective, innovative treatments for a range of fibrotic conditions. the amelioration of whole organ functi...

Cardiac fibrosis occurs naturally after myocardial infarction. While the initially formed fibrotic tissue prevents the infarcted heart tissue from rupture, the progression of cardiac fibrosis continuously expands the size of fibrotic tissue and causes cardiac function decrease. Cardiac fibrosis eventually evolves the infarcted hearts into heart failure. Inhibiting cardiac fibrosis from progress...

Objective(s): Menopause and diabetes obviously increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in women. The aims of the present study were to evaluate the effects of ovariectomy in type 2 diabetes on the histology and expression of miRNA-29, miRNA-133, IGF-1 and Bcl-2 genes and Bcl-2 protein and caspase 3 activity in the hearts of female rats. Materials and Methods: Forty Female Wistar rats were ...

Hypertensive cardiac remodeling is accompanied by molecular inflammation and fibrosis, 2 mechanisms that finally affect cardiac function. At cardiac level, aldosterone promotes inflammation and fibrosis, although the precise mechanisms are still unclear. Galectin-3 (Gal-3), a β-galactoside-binding lectin, is associated with inflammation and fibrosis in the cardiovascular system. We herein inves...

Several studies implicate elevated matrix metalloproteinase activity as a cause of cardiac fibrosis. However, it is unknown whether other proteases can also initiate cardiac fibrosis. Because absence of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) prevents development of cardiac fibrosis after experimental myocardial infarction in mice, we hypothesized that elevated activity of uPA or deficiency of th...

AIMS The mechanisms underlying cardiac fibrosis in hypertension are yet to be defined, although inflammatory cells, fibroblasts, and cytokines have been implicated. Here, we investigated the role of interleukin-4 (IL-4) in cardiac fibrosis, which is elevated in the hypertensive heart. IL-4 has been shown to be pro-fibrotic in the liver and the lung, but its role in cardiac fibrosis has not been...

Osteopontin (OPN) is upregulated in several experimental models of cardiac fibrosis and remodeling. However, its direct effects remain unclear. We examined the hypothesis that OPN is important for the development of cardiac fibrosis and remodeling. Moreover, we examined whether the inhibitory effect of eplerenone (Ep), a novel aldosterone receptor antagonist, was mediated through the inhibition...

Osteopontin (OPN) is upregulated in several experimental models of cardiac fibrosis and remodeling. However, its direct effects remain unclear. We examined the hypothesis that OPN is important for the development of cardiac fibrosis and remodeling. Moreover, we examined whether the inhibitory effect of eplerenone (Ep), a novel aldosterone receptor antagonist, was mediated through the inhibition...

OBJECTIVE Cardiac fibrosis is an important component of diabetic cardiomyopathy. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) ligands repress proinflammatory gene expression, including that of osteopontin, a known contributor to the development of myocardial fibrosis. We thus investigated the hypothesis that PPARgamma ligands could attenuate cardiac fibrosis. RESEARCH DESIGN A...

BACKGROUND Cardiac fibrosis attributed to excessive deposition of extracellular matrix proteins is a major cause of heart failure and death. Cardiac fibrosis is extremely difficult and challenging to treat in a clinical setting due to lack of understanding of molecular mechanisms leading to cardiac fibrosis and effective anti-fibrotic therapies. The objective in this study was to examine whethe...