Extracellular matrix and the kidney.

The matrix proteins Our ability to distinguish different extracellular matrix proteins is increasing rapidly."Col- lagen" or "hyaline" is no longer sufficient.Many different collagen types have been de- scribed.Many of these can be made up of a variety of different cz chains.The number of non-collagenous matrix glycoproteins con- tinues to grow.Furthermore, a single matrix protein gene is often subject to complex splicing of its mRNA,3 which may vary in different organs and in different disease states.After