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Fibrosis

Section edited by Mary Salvatore

The Fibrosis section aims to gather current high-quality research to better understand the process of normal tissue repair as well as the pathogenetic mechanisms responsible for the onset and progression of tissue fibrosis that leads to organ dysfunction and failure. Fibrosis is the common denominator in a variety of chronic diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, liver cirrhosis, and ulcerative colitis, among others. These fibrotic diseases affect a vast number of people across the world significantly impacting the quality of their life and increasing health care costs.

The section will focus on high-quality research from basic science to clinical trials. The expert members of our Editorial Board are committed to ensuring a productive scientific discussion and welcome your thought-provoking contributions to Fibrosis.


  1. Paraquat (PQ) is a widely used and highly toxic herbicide that poses a significant risk to human health. The main consequence of PQ poisoning is pulmonary fibrosis, which can result in respiratory failure and ...

    Authors: Min Zhang, Xiang Xue, Zhenshuai Lou, Yanhong Lin, Qian Li and Changbao Huang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:310
  2. The aberrant secretion and excessive deposition of type I collagen (Col1) are important factors in the pathogenesis of myocardial fibrosis in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). However, the precise molecular mechan...

    Authors: Hongjie Shi, Ming Yuan, Jie Cai, Lan Lan, Yumou Wang, Wei Wang, Jianliang Zhou, Bin Wang, Wenjun Yu, Zhe Dong, Dawei Deng, Qiaofeng Qian, Yang Li, Xianwu Zhou and Jinping Liu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:297
  3. Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a type of chronic interstitial pneumonia, often fatal, with elusive causes and a bleak prognosis. Its treatment options are limited and largely ineffective. Early detecti...

    Authors: Wenhua Gan, Wenwen Song, Yujuan Gao, Xuexue Zheng, Fengjuan Wang, Zirui Zhang, Ke Zen, Hongwei Liang and Xin Yan
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:264
  4. Peritoneal fibrosis is the prevailing complication induced by prolonged exposure to high glucose in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis.

    Authors: Qiong Song, Pengbo Wang, Huan Wang, Meijing Pan, Xiujuan Li, Zhuan’e Yao, Wei Wang, Guangbo Tang and Sen Zhou
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:243
  5. Kidney transplantation stands out as the most effective renal replacement therapy for patients grappling with end-stage renal disease. However, post-transplant renal fibrosis is a prevalent and irreversible co...

    Authors: Xinhao Niu, Cuidi Xu, Yin Celeste Cheuk, Xiaoqing Xu, Lifei Liang, Pingbao Zhang and Ruiming Rong
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:186
  6. The need for radiotherapy among the elderly rises with increasing life expectancy and a corresponding increase of elderly cancer patients. Radiation-induced skin injury is one of the most frequent adverse effe...

    Authors: Yan Chen, Le Ma, Zhuo Cheng, Zhihe Hu, Yang Xu, Jie Wu, Yali Dai and Chunmeng Shi
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:176
  7. The autophagy adapter SQSTM1/p62 is crucial for maintaining homeostasis in various organs and cells due to its protein–protein interaction domains and involvement in diverse physiological and pathological proc...

    Authors: Jing Feng, Yan Li, Yu Zhang, Shengnan Sun, Jian Sun, Quanlin Xu, Xingzhao Ji, Yi Liu and Qiang Wan
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:161
  8. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a complex multifactorial vascular pathology characterized by an increased pulmonary arterial pressure, vasoconstriction, remodelling of the pulmonary vasculature, thrombosis in s...

    Authors: Ioana Karla Comarița, Gabriela Tanko, Iliuță Laurențiu Anghelache and Adriana Georgescu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:137
  9. Esophageal strictures significantly impair patient quality of life and present a therapeutic challenge, particularly due to the high recurrence post-ESD/EMR. Current treatments manage symptoms rather than addr...

    Authors: Fang Yang, Yiwei Hu, Zewen Shi, Mujie Liu, Kefeng Hu, Guoliang Ye, Qian Pang, Ruixia Hou, Keqi Tang and Yabin Zhu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:123
  10. Liver fibrosis contributes to significant morbidity and mortality in Western nations, primarily attributed to chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Hypoxia and immune status have been reported to be signi...

    Authors: Chuwen Chen, Haozheng Cai, Junyi Shen, Xiaoyun Zhang, Wei Peng, Chuan Li, Haopeng Lv and Tianfu Wen
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:116
  11. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a globally prevalent, progressive disease with limited treatment options and poor prognosis. Because of its irreversible disease progression, IPF affects the quality and ...

    Authors: Jie Tan, Qianfei Xue, Xiao Hu and Junling Yang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:95
  12. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a progressive manifestation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that can lead to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Despite the growing know...

    Authors: Yuan Ni, Maoqing Lu, Ming Li, Xixi Hu, Feng Li, Yan Wang and Dong Xue
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:72
  13. Evaluate the behavior of lung nodules occurring in areas of pulmonary fibrosis and compare them to pulmonary nodules occurring in the non-fibrotic lung parenchyma.

    Authors: Mary M. Salvatore, Yucheng Liu, Boyu Peng, Hao Yun Hsu, Anjali Saqi, Wei-Yann Tsai, Cheng-Shiun Leu and Sachin Jambawalikar
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:67
  14. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative disease resulting joint disability and pain. Accumulating evidences suggest that chondrocyte extracellular matrix calcification plays an important role in the deve...

    Authors: Rong Peng, Jie Shang, Ning Jiang, Hsu Chi-Jen, Yu Gu, Baizhou Xing, Renan Hu, Biao Wu, Dawei Wang, Xianghe Xu and Huading Lu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:52
  15. Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a rare disease, belonging to the same category of urothelial cancers as bladder cancer (BC). Despite sharing similar non-surgical treatment modalities, UTUC demonstra...

    Authors: Keqiang Li, Zhenlin Huang, Guoqing Xie, Budeng Huang, Liang Song, Yu Zhang and Jinjian Yang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2024 22:24
  16. Chronic lung diseases include an array of conditions that impact airways and lung structures, leading to considerable societal burdens. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their exosomes (MSC-exos) can be used f...

    Authors: Zhengyao Zhai, Tairong Cui, Jialiang Chen, Xulong Mao and Ting Zhang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:895
  17. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has impacted approximately 390 million people worldwide and the morbidity is increasing every year. However, due to the poor treatment efficacy of COPD, exploring n...

    Authors: Wenhua Wang, Huaihuai Peng, Menghao Zeng, Jie Liu, Guibin Liang and Zhihui He
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:881
  18. The use of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) is a burgeoning method for the treatment of liver cirrhosis. However, the secretory phenotype and regulatory ability of UC-MSCs are easily affected by...

    Authors: Ye Xie, Jia Yao, Mengchao Yan, Yan Lin, Jiayun Wei, Haiping Wang, Yongcui Mao, Pinyan Liu and Xun Li
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:832
  19. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common idiopathic interstitial lung disease. Clinical models to accurately evaluate the prognosis of IPF are currently lacking. This study aimed to construct an ...

    Authors: Xiaoyun Cheng, Zhichao Feng, Boyu Pan, Qingxiang Liu, Yuanyuan Han, Lijun Zou, Pengfei Rong and Jie Meng
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:805
  20. The exact mechanism and target molecules of liver fibrosis have remained largely elusive. Here, we investigated the role of long noncoding RNA Gm9866(lncRNA-Gm9866) on liver fibrosis.

    Authors: Xiaomin Liao, Xianxian Ruan, Peishan Yao, Dan Yang, Xianbin Wu, Xia Zhou, Jie Jing, Dafu Wei, Yaodan Liang, Taicheng Zhang, Shanyu Qin and Haixing Jiang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:778
  21. Hepatic ischemia–reperfusion (IR) injury is the primary reason for complications following hepatectomy and liver transplantation (LT). Insulin-induced gene 2 (Insig2) is one of several proteins that anchor the...

    Authors: Yichao Wu, Changbiao Li, Abid Ali Khan, Kangchen Chen, Renyi Su, Shengjun Xu, Yiyang Sun, Fengqiang Gao, Kai Wang, Xiaodong Wang, Zhengxing Lian, Shuo Wang, Mengyuan Yu, Xin Hu, Fan Yang, Shusen Zheng…
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:739
  22. Cancer remains the leading cause of death around the world. In cancer treatment, over 50% of cancer patients receive radiotherapy alone or in multimodal combinations with other therapies. One of the adverse co...

    Authors: Zuxiang Yu, Chaoyu Xu, Bin Song, Shihao Zhang, Chong Chen, Changlong Li and Shuyu Zhang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:708
  23. Bone marrow fibrosis represents an important structural change in the marrow that interferes with some of its normal functions. The aetiopathogenesis of fibrosis is not well established except in its primary f...

    Authors: Kanjaksha Ghosh, Durjoy K. Shome, Bipin Kulkarni, Malay K. Ghosh and Kinjalka Ghosh
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:703
  24. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a progressive and inflammatory subtype of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) characterized by hepatocellular injury, inflammation, and fibrosis in various stages. M...

    Authors: Wei Shi, Guang Xu, Yuan Gao, Jun Zhao, Tingting Liu, Jia Zhao, Huijie Yang, Ziying Wei, Hui Li, An-Long Xu, Zhaofang Bai and Xiaohe Xiao
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:700
  25. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is fibrotic lung disease with no effective treatment. It is characterized by destruction of alveolar structure and pulmonary interstitial fibrosis, leading to dyspnea and ev...

    Authors: Jie Ji, Shudan Zheng, Yuxin Liu, Tian Xie, Xiaoyu Zhu, Yang Nie, Yi Shen and Xiaodong Han
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:640
  26. Progressive peritoneal fibrosis is a worldwide public health concern impacting patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD), yet there is no effective treatment. Our previous study revealed that a novel compou...

    Authors: Shuting Li, Congwei Luo, Sijia Chen, Yiyi Zhuang, Yue Ji, Yiqun Zeng, Yao Zeng, Xiaoyang He, Jing Xiao, Huizhen Wang, Xiaowen Chen, Haibo Long and Fenfen Peng
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:639
  27. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) remains limited due to dialysis failure caused by peritoneal fibrosis. Tamoxifen (TAM), an inhibitor of estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1), has been reported to treat fibrosis, but the underly...

    Authors: Tingting Zhao, Zhengyu Sun, Xueli Lai, Hongtao Lu, Lulu Liu, Shuangxi Li, Ji-hang Yuan and Zhiyong Guo
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:614
  28. Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), now better known as Metabolic (Dysfunction)-Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD) and its progression to Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH), more recently referred ...

    Authors: Paolo Convertini, Anna Santarsiero, Simona Todisco, Michele Gilio, Donatella Palazzo, Ilaria Pappalardo, Dominga Iacobazzi, Maria Frontuto and Vittoria Infantino
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:568
  29. Intestinal fibrosis is a common and severe complication of inflammatory bowel disease without clear pathogenesis. Abnormal expression of host genes and metabolic perturbations might associate with the onset of...

    Authors: Jinzhen Wu, Zhenyi Tian, Xiaoduan Zhuang, Yiru Chen, Tingting Fan, Jiayun Li and Xinying Wang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:554
  30. Tumour necrosis factor superfamily protein 14 (TNFSF14), also called LIGHT, is an important regulator of immunological and fibrosis diseases. However, its specific involvement in cardiac fibrosis and atrial fi...

    Authors: Yirong Wu, Siyao Zhan, Lian Chen, Mingrui Sun, Miaofu Li, Xuanting Mou, Zhen Zhang, Linhao Xu and Yizhou Xu
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:544
  31. Renal interstitial fibrosis is a common pathway for the progressive development of chronic renal diseases (CKD) with different etiology, and is the main pathological basis leading to end-stage renal disease. A...

    Authors: Wei Xiong, Zhiyong Xiong, Anni Song, Chuntao Lei, Chen Ye, Hua Su and Chun Zhang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:521
  32. Each step in angiogenesis is regulated by the extracellular matrix (ECM). Accumulating evidence indicates that ageing-related changes in the ECM driven by cellular senescence lead to a reduction in neovascular...

    Authors: Ping Xiao, Yanli Zhang, Yuting Zeng, Dehong Yang, Jiayao Mo, Ziting Zheng, Jilei Wang, Yuxin Zhang, Zhiyan Zhou, Xincen Zhong and Wenjuan Yan
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:457
  33. There are emerging studies suggesting that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a heterogeneous disease with multiple etiologies and molecular phenotypes. Fibrosis is the key process in NAFLD progressi...

    Authors: Weiwei He, Yinxiang Huang, Xiulin Shi, Qingxuan Wang, Menghua Wu, Han Li, Qiuhong Liu, Xiaofang Zhang, Caoxin Huang and Xuejun Li
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:448
  34. Silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis (silicosis) is a diffuse interstitial fibrotic disease characterized by the massive deposition of extracellular matrix in lung tissue. Fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiat...

    Authors: Yaqian Qu, Ruonan Zhai, Dandan Wang, Zheng Wang, Guangjie Hou, Chenchen Wu, Meian Tang, Xiongbin Xiao, Jie Jiao, Yue Ba, Fang Zhou, Jian Qiu and Wu Yao
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:365
  35. Renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis is the hallmark of various chronic kidney diseases. Symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) is an independent cardiovascular risk factor in patients with chronic kidney diseases, wh...

    Authors: Yanzhe Wang, Ming Wu, Dongping Chen, Bo Tan, Pinglan Lin, Di Huang and Chaoyang Ye
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:326
  36. Pericyte-myofibroblast transition (PMT) has been confirmed to contribute to renal fibrosis in several kidney diseases, and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is a well-known cytokine that drives PMT. Howev...

    Authors: Liangmei Chen, Xiaofan Li, Yiyao Deng, Jianwen Chen, Mengjie Huang, Fengge Zhu, Zhumei Gao, Lingling Wu, Quan Hong, Zhe Feng, Guangyan Cai, Xuefeng Sun, Xueyuan Bai and Xiangmei Chen
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:323
  37. Hypertrophic scar is a fibrotic disease following wound healing and is characterized by excessive extracellular matrix deposition. Autologous microfat grafting proves an effective strategy for the treatment th...

    Authors: Qian Yu, Qiang Dai, Zonglin Huang, Chen Li, Li Yan, Xin Fu, Qian Wang, Yi Zhang, Lei Cai, Zhigang Yang and Ran Xiao
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:231
  38. Fibrosis, a process caused by excessive deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM), is a common cause and outcome of organ failure and even death. Researchers have made many efforts to understand the mechanism o...

    Authors: Yangdan Liu, Dongsheng Wen, Chiakang Ho, Li Yu, Danning Zheng, Steven O’Reilly, Ya Gao, Qingfeng Li and Yifan Zhang
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:164
  39. Authors: Monica Pernia Marin and Mary Salvatore
    Citation: Journal of Translational Medicine 2023 21:59