Fibrosis Factor

This mouse kidney exhibits abundant scarring, or fibrosis (red and green). Scar formation is an important response to injury in the kidney, or indeed any other part of the body. But, if the fibrosis is excessive, then kidney function can be severely reduced, which can ultimately lead to the organ’s failure. Scientists have recently discovered that deficiency in the production of a certain form of collagen (collagen V) – a key component of scar tissue – can cause mice to be especially prone to kidney fibrosis and failure. Similarly, humans with low levels of collagen V are also more likely to develop chronic kidney disease (CKD) than people with normal levels of the protein. Lack of collagen V seems to weaken the scar, prompting the body to increase fibrosis to compensate. Importantly, pharmacologically targeting this collagen V pathway promoted kidney repair in the mice, suggesting it might work in CKD patients too.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

Writer

Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

Website

• Arjun Deb Lab/UCLA relating to work by Lianjiu Su and colleagues
• Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Science Translational Medicine, April 2025