The goal of this application is to provide the financial support for the ninth bi-annual Gordon conference on Elastin and Elastic Fibers. Elastic fibers are extracellular matrix structures that are responsible for the properties of resilience and elastic recoil in all elastic tissues. Complex connective tissue components, elastic fibers are composed of two distinct morphologic entities, an amorphous component and a microfibrillar component. Elastin is the major protein in elastic fibers and comprises the amorphous component. The microfibrillar component is a complex mixture of glycoproteins which collectively are responsible for the assembly of 10-12 nm microfibrils that function as a scaffold for the deposition of elastin. The complex structure of elastic fibers has been recognized for over twenty years. Alterations in elastic fiber synthesis or turnover associated with a wide range of elastic tissue diseases have also been recognized for some time, but it has only been in the last give years that an enormous amount of new information has been obtained describing the structure and detailed pathobiology of several elastic fiber components including elastin and several microfibrillar associated proteins, particularly the fibrillin glycoproteins and lysyl oxidase. The Elastin Gordon Conference has always been the major international venue for the dissemination of new information on elastic fibers. The enormous growth in the field precipitated a consensus to change the name of the Conference to Elastin and Elastic Fibers for the 1995 meeting. This ninth Conference on elastic fibers therefore is expected to provide an unprecedented forum for exciting deliberations on elastic fibers that should continue to play a critical role in developing new collaborative studies and stimulate new areas of investigation of this important component of connective tissue.
