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REVIEW article

Front. Mol. Biosci.

Sec. Molecular Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2025.1647300

This article is part of the Research TopicEpigenetic Regulation in FibrosisView all articles

The Role of Epigenetics in Pulmonary Fibrosis: Recent Advances in Mechanistic Insights and Therapeutic Implications

Provisionally accepted
Ao  ShenAo Shen*Jingru  HuangJingru HuangJianfeng  QinJianfeng QinYuguang  ZhuYuguang Zhu*
  • Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a fatal disease characterized by progressive fibrosis of lung tissue, with a key pathological feature of excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix. PF occurs from complicated origins, while emerging findings have suggested the involvement of the environmental factors in the risk of PF through epigenetic regulation. This article will discuss how recent advances in epigenetic alterations of DNA methylation, RNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNAs contribute to PF development through molecular mechanisms and cellular processes, including fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition (FMT), epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), alveolar epithelial cell injury and immune cell interactions in the past five years.

Keywords: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Epigenetic regulation, DNA Methylation, RNA methylation, Histone Modifications, non-coding RNA

Received: 15 Jun 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Huang, Qin and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Ao Shen, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
Yuguang Zhu, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China

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