296 Chapter 10 horizons in the uncharted skies of the complex nature of these devastating diseases. As introduced in Chapter 1, this thesis aimed to investigate how ECM rules them all; and why the fibrotic ECM has such a strong influence of in fibrotic processes has become more unclouded with findings of my thesis (Figure 1). Figure 1: The landscape and influence of the Realms of Extracellular Matrix (ECM) unclouded by the findings of thesis. The experimental chapters of this thesis (Chapters 3, 5, 8 & 9) encompass the landscape of the (combinations of) four areas through which fibrotic ECM exerts its influence: aberrant composition, disorganized fibers, altered biomechanics and (direction of) abnormal cells. These areas are bound by the theoretical chapters of this thesis (Chapters 2, 4, 6 & 7) which provide conceptual context. New opportunities for further exploration have been discovered through connecting the individual chapters and building on the findings made herein. While new fields have been unclouded by these chapters and are ready to be explored, they only mark the beginning of the new adventures. FUTURE PERSPECTIVES The findings and methodologies generated in this thesis enable a wide repertoire of future applications for both in vitro disease modeling and improving our understanding of disease mechanisms. In addition to the points highlighted in the section above, one of the future steps would be further characterization of the in vitro
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