REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Respiratory Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1501085
Current Advancements in the Mechanisms and Animal Models of Acute Exacerbation of Pulmonary Fibrosis: A Systematic Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1National Regional Chinese Medicine (Lung Disease) Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
- 2Co-construction Collaborative Innovation Center for Chinese Medicine and Respiratory Diseases, Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
- 3Henan Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine for Respiratory Disease, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
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Characterized by sudden onset, accelerated disease progression, and high mortality rates, Acute acute Exacerbation exacerbation (AE) of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (AE-IPF) represents the most critical clinical challenge faced by patients. with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). At present, tThe absence of standardized animal models that recapitulate human disease phenotypes remains a critical significant barrierimpediment to , which severely limits the study of AE-IPF. In this work, we conducted a systematic review of experimental protocols for acute exacerbation of pulmonary fibrosis (AE-PF) over the past 20 years relating to aspects such as animal species, drugs, drug doses, drug administration routes, and model characteristics, and summarized research progress on the mechanism underlying this condition. Statistical analysis revealed that bleomycin combined with lipopolysaccharide represents the predominant experimental paradigm for AE-PF, accounting for 26.3% (5/19) of all AE-PF models. Our analysis further showed that the major mechanisms involved in AE-IPF are inflammation, immune imbalance, oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and apoptosis of alveolar epithelial cells.
Keywords: animal model, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Acute exacerbation, mechanisms, Systematic review
Received: 24 Sep 2024; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Yao, Tao, Ma and Zhang. 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: Hailong Zhang, National Regional Chinese Medicine (Lung Disease) Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
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