Fibrotic disease is a disorder of tissue architecture, an ultimately self-sustaining response to persistent local tissue insult or microinjury. It presents in many clinical syndromes where there is a progressive loss of organ function and is a profound disease burden that is estimated to contribute to ~45% of all-cause mortality in the United States (Wynn, 2004). Fibrosis has proved stubbornly intractable to drug therapy: mechanisms of action that show efficacy in animal models have repeatedly failed in human clinical trial, and as part of an ongoing reappraisal of preclinical models, the need has emerged for better in vitro assays that offer genuine predictive capability.<\/p>\n