A 21-year-old woman comes to the university health clinic ...

The currently favored model or “theory” of IPF and related conditions is that alveolar epithelial cells are damaged (by an inhaled or aspirated triggering factor) and that their response is the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors that then: a) stimulate the proliferation of excessive numbers of fibroblasts (recall, fibroblast normally synthesize collagenous fibrous ... ................
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