CAFs Impact ECM and tumor growth: CAFs secrete MMPs to degrade ECM, releasing growth factors for cancer cells. ECM changes counteract CAFs and tumor cells: (a) Hard ECM triggers Twist release from ...

Fibroblasts are specialized cells in connective tissues that play an important role in wound healing and tissue repair. They produce and organize the so-called extracellular matrix, a network of ...

My lab is interested in understanding how the structure of the three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrix dictates the molecular and physical mechanisms driving cell motility. For example, we ...

One such cell type, cancer-associated fibroblasts, affects tumor progression in multiple ways, including modifying the stiffness and composition of the extracellular matrix, promoting and ...

Quantitative and qualitative changes in matrix protease activity play an important role in ECM remodeling accompanying fibrosing liver injury (see section on Extracellular Matrix Degradation ...

Human lung fibroblasts stimulated with TGF-β1 to detect extracellular collagen I (pink), alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) (green), and cell nuclei (blue) as a measure of matrix production and ...