Pulmonary fibrosis distal airway epithelia are dynamically and structurally dysfunctional

Abstract

Environmental and genetic risk factors affect the distal airway epithelium in idiopatic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) but the role of the epithelium in IPF remains unclear. Here the authors show that pathologic activation of the ERBB-YAP axis induces dynamic and structural dysfunction in the distal airway epithelium eliciting a pro-fibrotic phenotype in mesenchymal cells.