Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF)

Pulmonary fibrosis is a respiratory disease in which scars are formed in the lung tissues, leading to serious breathing problems. Scar formation, the accumulation of excess fibrous connective tissue, leads to thickening of the walls, and causes reduced oxygen supply in the blood. As a consequence patients suffer from perpetual shortness of breath.

Models for pulmonary fibrosisis are induced by Bleomycin, pingyangmycin and paraquat in rats and mice. Bleomycin is a widely used chemotherapeutic agent causing pulmonary fibrosis. Studies suggest that lung injuries induced by monocrotaline treatment progress to irreversible lung fibrosis and that this animal model for pulmonary fibrosis may have advantage for studying the pathogenesis of lung cancers in patients with pulmonary fibrosis.