Increased uptake of 111In-octreotide in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. J Nucl Med 2006; 47: 1281-7. Received: December 9, 2009 Revised: January 12, 2010 Accepted: January 12, 2010 © Richard et al.; Licensee Bentham Open. This is an open access article lic

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by an un-controlled accumulation and activation of lung fibroblasts. A modulation of fibroblast activation has been observed in various systems with octreotide, a synthetic somatostatin analog with strong affinity for the somatostatin receptor subtype 2 (sst2). One aim of our study was to evaluate the expression of somato-statin receptors in the lungs of patients with IPF. A second aim was to evaluate the relationship between 111In-octreotide uptake and the effect of pulmonary fibrosis as assessed by lung function tests and parameters and by radiologic findings. Methods: We investigated 11 patients with IPF, 6 patients with pulmonary fibrosis associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and 19 pa-tients with disease not of the lung (control patients). The expres-sion of somatostatin receptors was evaluated in vivo using 111In-octreotide scintigraphy. We evaluated the relationship be