Autophagy in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Autophagy is a basic cellular homeostatic process important to cell fate decisions under conditions of stress. Dysregulation of autophagy impacts numerous human diseases including cancer and chronic obstructive lung disease. This study investigates the role of autophagy in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. experiments were done using the bleomycin-induced fibrosis mouse model.. Inhibition of key regulators of autophagy, LC3 and beclin-1, leads to the opposite effect on fibroblast expression of á-smooth muscle actin and fibronectin. may represent a mechanism for the promotion of fibrogenesis in IPF