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The elusive source of myofibroblasts: problem solved?

Nature Medicine volume 18, pages 1178–1180 (2012)Cite this article

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Fibrosis is omnipresent and contributes to a substantial proportion of all natural deaths. A recent study (pages 1262–1270) provides evidence that the mysterious perivascular cell, also known as the pericyte, is the cell type responsible for fibrotic disease in skin and skeletal muscle.

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Figure 1: Mesenchymal perivascular cells are skin and muscle myofibroblast progenitors.

Katie Vicari

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  1. Jeremy S. Duffield is in the Departments of Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington, Seattle, Seattle, Washington, USA.,

    Jeremy S Duffield

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  1. Jeremy S Duffield
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Correspondence to Jeremy S Duffield.

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Competing interests

J.S.D. is on the scientific advisory board of Promedior, Inc. and Regulus Therapeutics. He holds stock options in Promedior, Inc. and receives research support from Regulus Therapeutics. He is also a consultant to Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, Biogen Idec, GlaxoSmithKline, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

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Duffield, J. The elusive source of myofibroblasts: problem solved?. Nat Med 18, 1178–1180 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2867

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