Liver fibrosis is a chronic condition affecting over 10% of US adults, and can be induced by various genetic and environmental factors. The current “gold standard” for diagnosing liver fibrosis is a total collagen stain of a liver biopsy with Picrosirius Red (PSR) or Masson’s Trichrome (MT). Where these commonly-used stains provide some information of fibrotic progression, they do not provide any information on how collagen production & remodeling dysregulate. Without understanding how collagen remodeling is taking place, professionals do not have a complete understanding of how a patient’s disease will progress.

The Xu group clearly shows that not only can CHPs effectively stain fibrotic livers, they are also able to detect fibrosis in ½ the amount of time as PSR. The researchers used CC14-induced fibrosis in mice, quantifying the amount of histological staining at 3, 7, 10, and 14 days after treatment. CHPs detect fibrosis as early as day 7, where PSR typically begins detecting fibrosis on day 14.