Fibroblast dynamics to mitigate tissue damage (B06)

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The project will identify cytokines and growth factors signalling to and from cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) which influence the damage response of the stroma vascular compartment. We have identified a novel lineage of CFs residing in the adventitia and labelled by LepR-Cre. At baseline, this CF subset is rare, but expands to produce the majority of scar fibroblasts after myocardial infarction. We will test whether LepR-Cre+ CFs are tissue-resident fibroblast progenitors and explore the role of leptin signalling on their activation. In addition, we will conduct ex vivo studies assessing autocrine and paracrine (on endothelial and immune cells) effects of a set of cytokines expressed by (pre)proliferative CFs.