Fibulin 5(FBLN5), with 448-amino acid protein (about 50kDa), is a recently discovered multifunctional extracellular matrix protein that mediates endothelial cell adhesion through integrin ligation, regulates cell growth and motility in a context-specific manner, and prevents elastinopathy in vivo. Fibulin-5 is abundantly expressed in great vessels and cardiac valves during embryogenesis, and in many adult tissues including the aorta, lung, uterus and skin, all of which contain abundant elastic fibres. Decreased fibulin-5 may contribute to the pathogenesis of aortic dissection by impairing elastic fiber assembly. Fibulin-5 is also a good marker of skin ageing and that the earlier loss of fibulin-5 may involve age-dependent changes in other elastic fibre components.
