Expression data from lung tissues of IPF patients and Normal Control

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive lethal interstitial lung disease of unkown etiology with limited effective therapies. The pathogenic mechanisms of IPF remain unkown. Emerging evidences indicate that abnormal behaviors of fibroblasts in IPF are associated with a variety of genetic alterations and aberrant reactivation of developmental signaling pathways. We compared gene expression profiles in fibrotic lung tissues from IPF patients and normal lung tissues from patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax using cDNA microarray to examine the mechnisms involved in the pathogenesis of IPF. Lung tissues were obtained from 5 IPF patients and 3 normal control subjects (patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax). Gene expression profiling was performed using GeneChip Human Transcriptome Array 2.0.