Hu Xinyuan, DeBiasi Erin M, Herzog Erica L
Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, 300 Cedar Street, 208057, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2015;1343:19-33. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-2963-4_3.
Because the incidence of organ fibrosis increases with age, various fibrosing disorders are projected to account for significant increases in morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs in the years to come. Treatments for these diseases are scarce and better understanding of the immunopathogenesis of fibrosis and its relationship to aging are sorely needed. One area of interest in this field is the role that fibrocytes might play in the development of tissue remodeling and fibrosis. Fibrocytes are mesenchymal progenitor cells presumed to be of monocyte origin that possess the tissue remodeling properties of tissue resident fibroblasts such as extracellular matrix production and α-SMA-related contractile properties, as well as the immunologic functions typically attributed to macrophages including production of cytokines and chemokines, antigen presentation, regulation of leukocyte trafficking, and modulation of angiogenesis. Fibrocytes could participate in the development of age-related fibrosing disorders through any or all of these functions. This chapter presents methods that have been developed for the study of circulating human fibrocytes. Protocols for the quantification of fibrocytes in the human circulation will be presented along with discussion of the technical challenges that are frequently encountered in this field. It is hoped that this information will facilitate further investigation of the relationship between fibrocytes, aging, and fibrosis, and perhaps uncover new areas of study in these difficult-to-treat and deadly diseases.
由于器官纤维化的发病率随年龄增长而增加，预计在未来几年，各种纤维化疾病将导致发病率、死亡率和医疗成本大幅上升。针对这些疾病的治疗方法稀缺，因此迫切需要更好地了解纤维化的免疫发病机制及其与衰老的关系。该领域一个令人感兴趣的方面是纤维细胞在组织重塑和纤维化发展中可能发挥的作用。纤维细胞是推测起源于单核细胞的间充质祖细胞，具有组织驻留成纤维细胞的组织重塑特性，如细胞外基质产生和α-平滑肌肌动蛋白相关的收缩特性，以及通常归因于巨噬细胞的免疫功能，包括细胞因子和趋化因子的产生、抗原呈递、白细胞运输调节和血管生成调节。纤维细胞可通过这些功能中的任何一种或全部参与与年龄相关的纤维化疾病的发展。本章介绍了已开发出的用于研究循环人纤维细胞的方法。将介绍人循环中纤维细胞定量的方案，并讨论该领域经常遇到的技术挑战。希望这些信息将有助于进一步研究纤维细胞、衰老和纤维化之间的关系，并可能揭示这些难以治疗的致命疾病的新研究领域。
