Collagen turnover in regenerating barbels of a catfish.

In regenerating barbels of Heteropneustes fossilis, membrane-enclosed collagen fibrils, some within lysosomes, are found in fibroblasts, in old connective tissue at the wound site and also in the fibroblasts of the newly-formed core of the regenerate. The implication is that tissue remodelling can involve fibroblasts in phagocytosis of recently formed collagen fibrils. Cytological evidence suggests that individual fibroblasts are capable of synthesis and phagocytosis simultaneously.