Overview of hepatocyte growth factor in the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
GE Jia-ning
GU Feng-hua
Abstract：Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis(IPF)is a chronic progressive disease whose causes and pathogenesis are related to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and myofibroblasts.The median survival time of patients with this disease is only 2～3 years,and the mortality rate is higher than that of most tumor diseases.Therefore,it is very important to find a new treatment method.Hepatocyte growth factor(HGF)is a polypeptide growth factor that has a variety of biological effects,especially a positive role in anti-fibrosis aspect.In this review,we summarize the biological characteristics of HGF and cellular-Mesenchymal epithelial transition factor(c-Met),and HGF/c-Met axis-related signaling pathways,and highlight the multiple roles of HGF in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis-related diseases,such as maintaining the survival of epithelial cells and endothelial cells,inhibiting the aggregation of myofibroblasts and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.In addition,we further analyze the feasibility of using HGF in the treatment of IPF and discuss its potential therapeutic advantages and possible challenges or limitations,in order to provide a theoretical reference for future research directions and clinical application strategies in this field.
Keywords：idiopathic pulmonary fibrosisepithelial-to-mesenchymal transitionhepatocyte growth factormyofibroblastscellular-mesenchymal epithelial transition factor
Publication Date：2025-05-30
Online Publishing Date：2026-08-14(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 1077-1081 )