Tobacco use: a smoking gun for IPF?

IPF is increasing in incidence globally.1 Epidemiological studies have identified a number of risk factors for the development of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) including male sex, advancing age, and a history of working in dusty industrial environments or of agricultural exposures.2 3 Smoking has also long been considered a risk factor, but definitive proof has been difficult to come by, as smoking behaviour is also associated with increased risk of other exposures because of sociodemographic factors. Disentangling the relative contributions of each risk factor is therefore tricky. Over recent years, a number of genome wide association studies (GWAS) have also identified genetic risk factors for developing IPF4 5 and in addition genetic risk factors associated with rates of disease progression have been found. Variant to gene mapping approaches have implicated a number of genes likely to underpin these genetic...
Source: Thorax - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Thorax Editorial Source Type: research