Publications by authors named "Pareesa Ali"
Article Synopsis
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a severe lung disease marked by excessive scarring, leading to poor respiratory function and a need for new treatment strategies, particularly involving macrophages, the key immune cells in the lungs.
- The study aimed to explore macrophage behavior in lung slices (PCLS), which are real lung tissues cultured in a lab, to better replicate the lung environment compared to isolated cells in vitro.
- Results showed that a polarization cocktail of specific cytokines can induce macrophage markers related to lung fibrosis in PCLS without harming the tissue, demonstrating a promising model for studying macrophage roles in IPF.
The treatment of interstitial lung diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), remains challenging as current available antifibrotic agents are not effective in halting disease progression. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), also known as cellular communication factor 2 (CCN2), is a member of the CCN family of proteins that regulates cell signaling through cell surface receptors such as integrins, the activity of cytokines/growth factors, and the turnover of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Accumulating evidence indicates that CTGF plays a crucial role in promoting lung fibrosis through multiple processes, including inducing transdifferentiation of fibroblasts to myofibroblasts, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and cooperating with other fibrotic mediators such as TGF-β.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIdiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the representative phenotype of interstitial lung disease where severe scarring develops in the lung interstitium. Although antifibrotic treatments are available and have been shown to slow the progression of IPF, improved therapeutic options are still needed. Recent data indicate that macrophages play essential pro-fibrotic roles in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis.
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