Clinical Significance
CTGF is associated with wound healing and virtually all fibrotic pathology. It is thought that CTGF can cooperate with TGF-β to induce sustained fibrosis, and to exacerbate extracellular matrix production in association other fibrosis-inducing conditions. Overexpression of CTGF in fibroblasts promotes fibrosis in the dermis, kidney, and lung, and deletion of Ctgf in fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells greatly reduces bleomycin-induced skin fibrosis.
In addition to fibrosis, aberrant CTGF expression is also associated with many types of malignancies, diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy, arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases. Several clinical trials are now ongoing that investigate the therapeutic value of targeting CTGF in fibrosis, diabetic nephropathy, and pancreatic cancer.
Read more about this topic: CTGF
Famous quotes containing the word significance:
“Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)