Approximately 45% of the deaths in the developed world result from conditions with a fibrotic component. Although no specific, focused anti-fibrotic therapies have been approved for clinical use, a long-standing concept is that targeting CCN proteins may be useful to treat fibrosis. Herein, we summarize current data supporting the concept that targeting CCN2 may be a viable anti-fibrotic approach to treat scleroderma. Testing this hypothesis has been made possible by using a mouse model of inflammation-driven skin and lung fibrosis.
Keywords: Bleomycin; CCN proteins; CCN2; CTGF; Fibrosis; Lung fibrosis; Matricellular proteins; Scleroderma.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.