Stimulating healthy tissue regeneration by targeting the 5-HT 2B receptor in chronic liver disease

Wound healing involves a transient regeneration of tissue, but, if this process continues unabated, pathology occurs in the form of fibrosis, which can prevent normal organ function and even death. Derek Mann and his colleagues have found that serotonin-responsive profibrogenic hepatic stellate cells inhibit the growth of neighboring liver cells during the termination phase of liver injury. They also found that inhibiting serotonin signaling during established disease improved liver fibrosis in various mouse models of liver injury.