Medical Xpress)—Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, or IPF, is an incurable lung disease that, over time, turns healthy lung tissue into inflexible scar tissue – hardening the lungs and eventually causing respiratory distress and death. Currently, there is no cure.
Phil Sannes, a professor of cell biology, studies IPF on the cellular level. In his most recent research, he’s found that in the case of IPF patients, three growth factors within different types of cells in the lung may be working together to cause the disease.
Previous research, including earlier studies from Sannes’ lab, established two signaling molecules that seemed to be involved in the development of IPF: Wnt7B and TGF-?.
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