Fibrinogen as a damage-associated mitogenic signal for the renal fibroblast.

Abstract

Fibroblast proliferation is central to the evolution of renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Using both in vivo and in vitro approaches, Sörensen et al. describe a role for fibrinogen as a cell-surface-receptor-mediated mitogen for renal fibroblasts. This interaction, likely to be initiated by injury and extravasation and to signal principally via Toll-like receptors, implicates fibrinogen in renal fibrosis beyond its textbook description as a scaffold precursor at the end of the coagulation cascade.