Gene expression profiling of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and non-specific interstitial pneumonia

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) are the 2 most common forms of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. Response to therapy and prognosis are remarkably different. The clinical-radiographic distinction between IPF and NSIP may be challenging. We sought to investigate the gene expression profile of IPF vs. NSIP We used microarray to identifiy the gene expression profiles in patients with IPF and NSIP, mixed IPF/NSIP histologic pattern and normal controls. Fresh frozen lung samples were obtained from the recipients organs of 22 patients with IPF, 10 with NSIP and 5 with mixed IPF-NSIP undergoing lung transplantation. Normal lung tissue (n=11) was obtained from tissue flanking lung cancer resections. RNA was extracted and hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays.