Background: Endometriosis, a disease affecting 3-10% of women of reproductive age, is characterized by the ectopic growth of endometrial glands and stroma surrounded by dense fibrous tissue. Whereas, normal eutopic endometrium shows scarless tissue repair during menstrual cycles, which suggests that the endometriotic tissues have distinct mechanisms of fibrogenesis. During the development of en...

Quantitative data are presented regarding cell proliferation and migration on (a) collagen films (b) the surface of 3-dimensional gels of native collagen fibres and (c) within the 3-dimensional collagen gel matrix, as part of a study of the effects of the extracellular matrix on cell behaviour. The nature of the collagen environment was found to influence the proliferation of certain cell types...

Bovine retinal pericytes plated on a two-dimensional substratum display a characteristic stellate morphology. In post-confluent cultures these cells aggregate spontaneously to form multicellular nodules. The same cells plated within a three-dimensional collagen matrix display an elongated sprouting morphology. Sprouting pericytes may be embedded within a gel either as individual cells or as mul...

nicotine is an alkaloid by high level of addictive property that can quickly assimilate from smoker’s lung. it passes from the placenta and gathers in the developing fetus. our previous study showed that collagen type iv plays a critical role in basement membrane of different embryonic organs. in this study the effect of maternal nicotine was evaluated by collagen iv changes in lung of mice off...

background : human wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells (hwjmscs) express liver-specific markers such as albumin, alpha-fetoprotein, cytokeratin-19, cytokeratin-18, and glucose-6-phosphatase. therefore, they can be considered as a good source for cell replacement therapy for liver diseases. this study aimed to evaluate the effects of various culture systems on the hepatocyte-specific gene exp...

In healing ligaments and tendons, the cells are not aligned and collagen matrix is not organized as in normal tissues. In addition, the mechanical properties of the tissues are abnormal. We hypothesized that the lack of alignment of the collagen matrix results from random orientation of the cells seen in the healing area. To test this hypothesis, a novel in vitro model was used in which the ori...

Bi Y, Mukhopadhyay D, Drinane M, Ji B, Li X, Cao S, Shah VH. Endocytosis of collagen by hepatic stellate cells regulates extracellular matrix dynamics. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 307: C622–C633, 2014. First published July 30, 2014; doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00086.2014.—Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) generate matrix, which in turn may also regulate HSCs function during liver fibrosis. We hypothesized th...

Excessive proliferation and overexpression of collagens by smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are important features of atherogenesis. To understand the role of the extracellular matrix in the regulation of these processes, we examined proliferation and protein/collagen synthesis of SMCs in contact with a collagen matrix. Adult pig SMCs were isolated from the aortic media by collagenase digestion, subc...

Skin appearance is a primary indicator of age. During the last decade, substantial progress has been made toward understanding underlying mechanisms of human skin aging. This understanding provides the basis for current use and new development of antiaging treatments. Our objective is to review present state-of-the-art knowledge pertaining to mechanisms involved in skin aging, with specific foc...