Inflammatory cell infiltration in experimental liver fibrosis is affected by inhibition of fibronectin matrix assembly

Background and Aims: The accumulation of inflammatory cells is an important step in liver fibrosis. Fibronectin has been shown to enhance tissue infiltration of various cell types including immune cells. Our aim was to determine how the loss of fibronectin in the liver might affect the inflammatory response to liver injury. In prior work by our group, deletion of fibronectin production by the myofibroblasts resulted in an increase in available TGF-β and hence an increase in fibrotic signals within the liver precluding an examination of the direct effect of fibronectin on inflammation in the response to fibrosis…