A study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine by researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University of Denver in the US suggests that idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) may be related to an increase in extracellular vesicles that relay WNT5A signals to the lungs for an increase in connective tissue.
Extracellular vesicles are tiny pouches released by cells that can contain a large number of messenger substances, such as proteins and nucleic acids.