Effect of IL-6 on alveolar fibroblast proliferation in interstitial lung diseases.

Alveolar macrophage-fibroblast interaction may be involved in the pathogenesis of interstitial lung diseases (ILD). Herein, we compared IL-6 secretion from alveolar macrophages (AM) and alveolar fibroblasts (AFb) recovered from patients with sarcoidosis (SA) and with diffuse interstitial fibrosis (DIF). Moreover, we evaluated the effect of IL-6 on the in vitro AFb proliferation in both diseases.