Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Overstretched

Collagen V regulates the size of heart scar tissue after a heart attack

22 August 2020

Overstretched

After a heart attack, damaged heart muscle is replaced by connective scar tissue. A critical part of the healing process, this also affects health outcomes after recovery, with larger scars associated with higher mortality. Scar tissue is primarily composed of collagens but, paradoxically, researchers recently discovered that the absence of one of these proteins, collagen type V, leads to greater scarring. In mice lacking collagen V, the scar structure is altered (pictured, right, with disorganised fibres, compared to a healthy scar, left), and becomes too flexible. As the heart expands to pump blood, the scar swells with it, which encourages secretion of more collagens to combat this stretching, causing continued cycles of scar expansion. Promisingly, treatment with an existing drug, cilengitide, originally developed as cancer medication, can break this feedback loop, suggesting further research on collagen V could lead to better ways of dealing with scarring after heart attacks.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.