Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have shown that even after lung tissue has been damaged, it may be possible to reverse fibrosis and promote tissue repair through treatment with microgel-coated mesenchymal stromal cells.
Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic disease caused by environmental toxins, medications or medical conditions like pneumonia and rheumatoid arthritis. It is characterized by the formation of scar tissue due to damage or an unchecked immune response, and it can cause mild to severe difficulty breathing and oxygen deprivation. Fibrosis is currently thought to be mostly irreversible, as current drug treatments are only mildly effective at managing symptoms and generally cause significant side effects.
Mesenchymal stromal cells, or MSCs, are multipotent and self-renewing, much like stem cells, and they have been studied for their potential to treat conditions like fibrosis.
“While previous studies tested the therapeutic effects of MSCs – which are known to suppress inflammation and to adapt to different tissue environments – their efficacy has so far been limited to early phases of the disease, when inflammation levels are high and scar tissue is still forming” said Jae-Won Shin, UIC assistant professor of pharmacology and bioengineering at the College of Medicine and corresponding author of the study. “Our approach was to optimize MSC-based therapeutics to work after inflammation has been reduced, which is when most people are diagnosed with fibrosis.”
bioengineer.org/microgel-co...
Nature Biomedical Engineering. Research Paper:
Brother in hospital with pulmonary fibrosis 
Hello - my 'Mum' has Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
CT scan 10 weeks ago showed pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema.
Mycophenolate instead of Perfinedine or Nintenanib? 
