Interleukin-1 and Systemic Sclerosis: Getting to the Heart of Cardiac Involvement.

ABSTRACT: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is rare, severe connective tissue disease characterized by endothelial and vascular damage, immune activation, and resulting in inflammation and fibrosis of skin and internal organs, including the heart. SSc is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Cardiac involvement is frequent in SSc patients, even though often asymptomatic at early stages, and represents one of the major causes of SSc-related mortality. Heart involvement has a variable clinical presentation, and its pathogenesis is not completely understood. Myocardial fibrosis is traditionally considered the immunopathologic hallmark of heart involvement in SSc. This unique histological feature is paralleled by distinctive clinical and prognostic features. The so-called "vascular hypothesis" represents

SUBMITTER: De Luca G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8021854 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature