Professor Koji Matsushima of the University of Tokyo and others have identified the origin of the cells that cause pulmonary fibrosis.In pulmonary fibrosis, the deposition of fibers causes the entire lung to become stiff and causes dyspnea.It is a fatal disease as it progresses.There was a part of the cause that was not well understood, and it was urgent to clarify it for the development of a treatment method.
Professor Matsushima's group discovered that when cells were sent directly into the lungs from the mouth of a mouse, the cells engrafted in the lung tissue.With this new experimental method, we transplanted some cells suspected to be associated with pulmonary fibrosis.As a result, it was found that cells called tissue-resident fibroblasts differentiate into activated fibroblasts that cause disease.In this way, we succeeded in identifying the causative cell.In future research, we aim to develop a new therapeutic method by clarifying the mechanism of how these cells differentiate into the causative cells of the disease.
Until now, therapeutic agents for pulmonary fibrosis have been actively developed.Some drugs have advanced to the clinical trial stage, but none of them completely eliminate the cause.It is expected that the results of this research will be the basic knowledge that will be indispensable for the development of fundamental therapeutic agents in the future.