Publications

OBJECTIVES: Remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) is a key event in different lung disorders, such as fibrosis and cancer. The most common cell type in the connective tissue is fibroblasts, which transdifferentiate into myofibroblasts upon activation. All myofibroblasts express α-SMA, which h...

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• Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Respiratory diseases

Background: Patients with atherosclerosis have a high risk of cardiovascular events and death. Atherosclerosis is characterized by accumulation of lipids, cells and extracellular matrix proteins in the intima. We hypothesized that dysregulated remodeling of the basement membrane proteins may be asso...

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• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Atherosclerosis

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have increased risk of development of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and early mortality. Fibrosis is the central pathogenic process in CKD and is caused by dysregulated extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. The laminin γ1 chain (LAMC1) is a co...

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• Renal Diseases
• Chronic Kidney Disease
• Fibrosis

The matricellular protein SPARC (secreted proteome acidic and rich in cysteine) is known to bind collagens and regulate fibrillogenesis. Cleavage of SPARC at a single peptide bond, increases the affinity for collagens up to 20-fold. To investigate if this specific cleavage has pathological relevance...

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• Oncology
• Respiratory diseases
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Fibrosis
• Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

AIM: Collagens are major cardiac extracellular matrix components, known to be actively remodelled and accumulated during diffuse myocardial fibrosis. We evaluated whether accelerated collagen turnover described by neo-epitope biomarkers reflecting collagen formation and degradation separates patient...

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• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Fibrosis
• Myocardial Infarction
• Atherosclerosis

BACKGROUND: Truncated tau appears to be specifically related to disease pathology and recent studies have shown the presence and elevation of several truncated tau species in Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of subjects with Alzheimer\u0027s disease (AD); however, the relevance of truncated Tau measurement...

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• Central Nervous System
• Alzheimer’s Disease

The extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a vital role in maintaining normal tissue function. Collagens are major components of the ECM and there is a tight equilibrium between degradation and formation of these proteins ensuring tissue health and homeostasis. As a consequence of tissue turnover, small c...

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OBJECTIVES: Fibrosis and cancer are characterized by extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. The basement membrane is mainly composed by collagen type IV and laminin. Tumstatin is a matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) generated matrikine of collagen type IV α3 chain. We evaluated the potential of tums...

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• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
• Oncology
• Respiratory diseases
• Fibrosis

BACKGROUND: Identification of subjects with a progressive disease phenotype is an urgent need in the pharmaceutical industry where most of the recent clinical trials in Alzheimer\u0027s disease have failed. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to identify subgroups of individuals with object...

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Background: Decorin is one of the most abundant proteoglycans of the extracellular matrix and is mainly secreted and deposited in the interstitial matrix by fibroblasts where it plays an important role in collagen turnover and tissue homeostasis. Degradation of decorin might disturb normal tissue ho...

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• Oncology
• Respiratory diseases
• Fibrosis
• Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis