COL8A1 and Hepatic fibrosis: It was shown that a lack of collagen VIII reduces myofibroblast differentiation and fibrosis in mouse hearts (Skrbic et al. 2015), and that COL8A1 and COL5A2 are dysregulated in progressing liver fibrosis in rodents (Fagone et al. 2015; Kasai et al. 2021).