Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) Model

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common idiopathic interstitial pneumonia and characterized by extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and abnormal proliferation of fibroblasts in pulmonary parenchyma. IPF results from long-term exposure to substances harming alveolar epithelial cells and heredity. Currently, the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis has not been clearly uncovered, but various cytokines and other molecules have been discovered to play crucial roles in the progression of pulmonary fibrosis.

Method

Bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis is the most common experimental study model of human idiopathic lung fibrosis. IPST has developed a mouse and a rat model of bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis and established time courses of effect over a 21 or 28-day period post-bleomycin administration.

For the drug-screening process, all the animals are weighed on a daily basis to determine the efficacy of drugs.

• Body weight
• Terminal BALF total cell counts and subsequent differential
• Terminal BALF cytokines
• Lung hydroxyproline content
• Blood/plasma collection and storage
• Lung histology for morphology (H&E) and lung fibrosis quantification (Masson Trichome or Sirius Red staining)

For more in-depth efficacy studies, IPST also has the capacity to measure lung function capacity through whole-body Plethysmography. For a translational endpoint, IPST has developed a walking challenge test to assess the aerobic capacity. This test is a sub-maximal challenge and determines the walked distance before exhaustion.

Mice and rats