Interstitial lung disease (ILD) comprises a group of lung diseases principally affecting the pulmonary interstitium, for example, pulmonary fibrosis. Following acute lung injury (ALI), the fate of an injured lung progressing towards either injury resolution or pulmonary fibrosis is dictated by hypoxia at various stages during the disease progression. Hypoxia that is tissue destructive at one stage of lung injury becomes beneficial at a different stage, with each hypoxic stage involving a different scheme of molecular pathways, cellular interplay and tissue remodeling. In this chapter, we provide a detailed account of hypoxia during the different stages of lung injury in ILDs, delineate the cellular and molecular mechanisms mediating tissue remodeling in the hypoxic lungs as well as the basic and clinical findings in this field with an emphasis on future therapeutics to modulate hypoxia to treat ILD.
Part of the book: Hypoxia and Human Diseases