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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Generation of Self-assembled Vascularized Human Skin Equivalents
Published on: February 12, 2021
Could aging human skin use a connective tissue growth factor boost to increase collagen content?
Noelynn Oliver1, Mark Sternlicht, Karin Gerritsen
1Therapeutics Research, FibroGen, Inc., San Francisco, California 94080, USA. noelynnoliver@yahoo.com
Abstract:
The roles of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), both well-known collagen production stimulators, were examined in skin aging. Aged skin and fibroblasts exhibited a coordinate decrease in CTGF, TGF-beta, and type I procollagen expression and content. CTGF knockdown and TGF-beta blockade in normal dermal fibroblasts reduced procollagen expression, whereas overexpressing CTGF increased procollagen by a TGF-beta/Smad signaling-dependent mechanism without involving Smad2/3.
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