Role of Matricellular Proteins in Cardiac Allograft Fibrosis

While acute rejection of solid organ allografts has become a rare clinical condition, longterm graft survival is threatened by the development of fibrosis. Such fibrosis is seen in two forms in the heart, one being an accelerated process of atherosclerosis termed transplant vasculopathy, the second a parenchymal response to the ensuing ischemia, low-grade cellular or humoral allorejection, as well as other factors.