About Fibrosis

Fibrosis is the process by which healthy tissue is replaced by scar tissue. It occurs as a response to injury or chronic inflammation, and while some degree of scarring is a normal part of healing, in fibrotic disease this process becomes self-sustaining and progressive, gradually replacing functional tissue with collagen-rich scar.

The consequences depend on where fibrosis occurs. In the lung, it destroys the delicate air sacs responsible for oxygen exchange, leading to breathlessness and respiratory failure. In the heart, it stiffens the muscle and impairs its ability to pump. In the kidney, it progressively destroys the filtering units responsible for removing waste from the blood. In the liver, unchecked fibrosis leads to cirrhosis and liver failure.

What makes fibrosis particularly difficult to treat is that, until recently, it was considered largely irreversible. Current approved therapies can slow the rate of progression in some fibrotic conditions, but none have demonstrated the ability to reverse established scar tissue and restore normal organ architecture.

This is the central challenge Vectus Biosystems is working to address.