Table 1 Cellular fibronectin (FN) isoforms reported during physiological and pathological conditions

Physiological wound healing

EIIIA

Expressed in tubular basement membrane by endothelium in rat model of acute renal failure; involved in regeneration of proximal tubules

[237]

Increased expression by alveolar septal cells, albeolar macrophages and endothelial cells upon acute hyperoxic lung injury

[238]

Absence results in abnormal wound healing in EIIIA^-/- mice

[90]

Expressed in rat model of liver injury by sinusoidal endothelial cells

[98]

EIIIB

Increased levels in blood plasma after acute major trauma

[18]

Increased expression by chondrocytes in muscularized arteries upon acute hyperoxic lung injury

[238]

EIIIA and EIIIB

Observed in granulation tissue by 7 days; EIIIB+ levels remain increased even after 14 days; EIIIA+ found around arterioles in connective tissue adjacent to the wound after 4 days

[95]

Deposited in basement membrane zone of keratectomy wound models of corneal injury in rats

[239]

Detected in ulcerated gastric tissue in rat models

[240]

EIIIA, EIIIB and V

All isoforms upregulated during rat corneal wound healing

[241]

Pathological conditions

Fibrosis

EIIIA

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrotic fibroblasts isolated from patients express higher levels of EIIIA+FN

[201]

Involved in lung fibrogenesis in rat models of pulmonary fibrosis

[201]

Highly expressed in mesangium and interstitium in rat glioblastoma multiforme and Habu snake venom models of renal fibrosis

[202]

Increased expression in acute and chronic cutaneous graft-versus-host disease

[200]

Increased in fibrotic periglomerular regions and areas of interstitial fibrosis

[26]

Increased expression in human hepatic fibrosis

[242]

Can induce the conversion of lipocytes to myofibroblasts; may play a role in hepatic fibrogenesis

[98]

EIIIB

Increased in obsolescent glomeruli

[26]

EIIIA and EIIIB

Increased in glomerulosclerotic lesions and fibrous crescents

[26]

Tumorigenesis

EIIIA

Increased expression in hepatocellular carcinomas

[242]

EIIIB

Increased expression in interstitium and vascular intima of many primary human tumors including meningioma

[243]

Expressed around neovasculature and stroma of many malignant head and neck tumors

[244]

Detected around tumor stroma, tumor vasculature and in tissue adjacent to the invasion front of oral squamous cell carcinomas

[245]

Detected in the stroma, in the cytoplasm of tumor cells and endothelial cells in the neovasculature of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas

[246]

EIIIA and EIIIB

Expressed in tumor blood vessels in mouse model of pancreatic tumorigenesis

[247]

Present around the blood vessels of intratumoral microvessels in breast carcinomas.

[248]

Other

EIIIA

Increased plasma levels in synovial fluid of rheumatoid arthritic joints

[249]

EIIIA, EIIIB and V

Increased expression in rat model of hypertension, especially of EIIIA+ form after 21 d

[250]