Fibrosis is the formation of excess fibrous connective tissue in an organ or tissue in a reparative or reactive process. This is as opposed to formation of fibrous tissue as a normal constituent of an organ or tissue. Scarring is confluent fibrosis that obliterates the architecture of the underlying organ or tissue.
The term is also sometimes used to describe a normal healing process, but this usage is less common.
Examples of fibrosis include:
- Pulmonary fibrosis (lungs)
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (where the cause is unknown)
- Cirrhosis (liver)
- Endomyocardial fibrosis (heart)
- Mediastinal fibrosis (soft tissue of the mediastinum)
- Myelofibrosis (bone marrow)
- Retroperitoneal fibrosis (soft tissue of the retroperitoneum)
- Progressive massive fibrosis (lungs); a complication of coal workers' pneumoconiosis
- Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (skin)
- Crohn's Disease (intestine)
- Keloid (skin)
- Old myocardial infarction (heart)
- Scleroderma/systemic sclerosis (skin, lungs)
Further Reading
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article on
"Fibrosis"
All material adapted used from Wikipedia is available under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Wikipedia® itself is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.