Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) remains a disease with an unknown cause and a poor
prognosis. Among attempts to define disease pathogenesis, animal models of experimental
lung fibrosis have a prominent role. Commonly used models include exposure to bleomycin,
silica, fluorescein isothiocyanate; irradiation; or expression of specific genes through a viral
vector or transgenic system. These all have been instrumental in the study of lung fibrosis,
but all have limitations and fall short of recapitulating a pattern of usual interstitial …