Critical Role of Endogenous Thrombospondin-1 in Preventing Expansion of Healing Myocardial Infarcts

The infarct border zone may be capable of modulating the healing process through its unique extracellular matrix content. The selective endogenous expression of TSP-1 in the infarct border zone may serve as a "barrier," limiting expansion of granulation tissue and protecting the noninfarcted myocardium from fibrotic remodeling.