The involvement of fibrosis as an underlying pathology in heart diseases is becoming increasingly clear. In recent years, fibrosis has been granted a causative role in heart diseases and is now emerging as a major contributor to Atrial Fibrillation (AF) pathogenesis. AF is the most common arrhythmia encountered in the clinic, but the substrate for AF is still being debated. Consensus in the field is a combination of cardiac tissue remodeling, inflammation and genetic predisposition. The extracellular matrix (ECM) is subject of growing investigation, since measuring circulatory biomarkers of ECM formation and degradation provides both diagnostic and prognostic information. However, fibrosis is not just fibrosis. Each specific collagen biomarker holds information on regulatory mechanisms, as well as information about which section of the ECM is being remodeled, providing a detailed description of cardiac tissue homeostasis. This review entails an overview of the implication of fibrosis in AF, the different collagens and their significance, and the potential of using biomarkers of ECM remodeling as tools for understanding AF pathogenesis and identifying patients at risk for further disease progression.

纤维化作为心脏病的潜在病理学的参与正变得越来越清楚。近年来，纤维化被认为是心脏病的致病因素，现在正在成为心房颤动 (AF) 发病机制的主要因素。房颤是临床上最常见的心律失常，但房颤的底物仍在争论中。该领域的共识是心脏组织重塑、炎症和遗传倾向的结合。细胞外基质 (ECM) 是越来越多的研究对象，因为测量 ECM 形成和降解的循环生物标志物可提供诊断和预后信息。然而，纤维化不仅仅是纤维化。每个特定的胶原蛋白生物标志物都包含有关调节机制的信息，以及有关正在改造的 ECM 部分的信息，提供心脏组织稳态的详细描述。本综述概述了 AF 中纤维化的含义、不同的胶原蛋白及其重要性，以及使用 ECM 重塑生物标志物作为了解 AF 发病机制和识别有进一步疾病进展风险的患者的工具的潜力。