Imaging technologies in experimental pulmonary fibrosis research: essential tool for enhanced translational relevance

Pulmonary fibrosis remains a devastating and often fatal condition due to the lack of effective treatments that halt disease progression. Rodent models of pulmonary fibrosis are crucial to identify candidate targets and novel therapeutic agents. However, the attrition rate of novel drug candidates in clinical trials remains high. This review suggests complementing traditional methods used to evaluate antifibrotic therapies in rodent models, such as histopathological and biochemical markers, and lung function tests, with innovative imaging technologies. These imaging techniques could improve the predictive power and translatability of animal studies in human clinical trials. Notably, previous studies in mice and other rodents have observed compensatory lung enlargement in response to lung injury, questioning whether the conventional view of pulmonary fibrosis as a restrictive disease applies to rodents. By adding longitudinal image-based biomarkers, we aim to better unravel the complexity of lung responses and facilitate more effective drug development for pulmonary fibrosis, ultimately improving patient outcomes.