ArticleArthritis research & therapy2005
Shared expression of phenotypic markers in systemic sclerosis indicates a convergence of pericytes and fibroblasts to a myofibroblast lineage in fibrosis.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 107 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
107 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 230 citations in OpenAlex.
- Extreme Diversity of the Human Vascular Mesenchymal Cell Landscape.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2020Pooled it
- Biomarker analysis from the phase 2b randomized placebo-controlled trial of riociguat in early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- N-acetylcysteine infusion reduces the resistance index of renal artery in the early stage of systemic sclerosis.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2009Trial
- Reprogramming of the lipid metabolism axis in systemic sclerosis: mechanism analysis and therapeutic potential.Clinical rheumatology · 2026Review
- Deep phenotyping of skin tissue remodeling in patients with systemic sclerosis treated with CD19-CAR T cells.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Integrating Single-Cell Transcriptomics and Mendelian Randomization to Identify RAC1 as a Causal Metabolic Driver of Pericyte Dysfunction in Systemic Sclerosis.Mediators of inflammation · 2026Article
- Spontaneous intermuscular hematoma in mixed connective tissue disease: a case report.Frontiers in surgery · 2026Article
- Pericytes in tissue fibrosis.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2025Review
- Critical Role for Transglutaminase 2 in Scleroderma Skin Fibrosis and in the Development of Dermal Sclerosis in a Mouse Model of Scleroderma.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Elastin as a Novel Extracellular Matrix From Aberrant HDAC4 Expression in PDGF-BB-Induced Orbital Fibroblasts From Graves' Ophthalmopathy Patients.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- TGFβ-mediated inhibition of hypodermal adipocyte progenitor differentiation promotes wound-induced skin fibrosis.Cell proliferation · 2025Article
- Transcriptomic characterization of lung pericytes in systemic sclerosis-associated pulmonary fibrosis.iScience · 2024Article
- Immunogenetics of Systemic Sclerosis.Genes · 2024Review
- Cellular Transdifferentiation: A Crucial Mechanism of Fibrosis in Systemic Sclerosis.Current rheumatology reviews · 2024Review
- Back to the future: targeting the extracellular matrix to treat systemic sclerosis.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2023Review
- The Pathogenesis of Systemic Sclerosis: The Origin of Fibrosis and Interlink with Vasculopathy and Autoimmunity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Stem cell pathology: histogenesis of malignant fibrous histiocytoma and characterization of myofibroblasts appearing in fibrotic lesions.The Journal of veterinary medical science · 2023Review
- The Role of Autophagy and Apoptosis in Affected Skin and Lungs in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Single-Cell Analysis of ADSC Interactions with Fibroblasts and Endothelial Cells in Scleroderma Skin.Cells · 2023Article
- p53 and Myofibroblast Apoptosis in Organ Fibrosis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
47 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The mechanisms by which microvascular damage leads to dermal fibrosis in diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) are unclear. We hypothesized that microvascular pericytes constitute a cellular link between microvascular damage and fibrosis by transdifferentiating into myofibroblasts. We used a combination of immunohistochemistry and double immunofluorescence labelling of frozen skin biopsies taken from normal and dcSSc patients to determine whether a phenotypic link between pericytes and myofibroblasts exists in dcSSc. Using alpha-smooth muscle actin, the ED-A splice variant of fibronectin (ED-A FN) and Thy-1 to identify myofibroblasts, we demonstrated the presence of myofibroblasts in fibrotic dcSSc skin. Myofibroblasts were totally absent from control skin, atrophic stage dcSSc skin and non-lesional skin. Using double immunofluorescence labelling, both myofibroblasts and pericytes were shown to express ED-A FN and Thy-1 in dcSSc skin but not in control skin. Proliferating cell nuclear antigen was also expressed by myofibroblasts and pericytes in dcSSc skin while being absent in control skin. These observations suggest that the presence of myofibroblasts may represent a transitional phase during the fibrotic stages of dcSSc and that Thy-1+ve pericytes participate in the fibrogenic development of dcSSc by synthesizing ED-A FN, which may be associated with a proliferation and transition of pericytes and fibroblasts to myofibroblasts, thus linking microvascular damage and fibrosis.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.