TNF and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: 2010; Raghu et al. 2012). Pirfenidoneis has been demonstrated to be a promising agent with therapeutic potential for IPF due to its antifibrotic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects (Gurujeyalakshmi et al. 1999; Iyer et al. 1999; Oku et al. 2008). Studies have reported that pirfenidone is able to inhibit the expression of pulmonary cytokines in murine pulmonary fibrosis, such as TNF-α, TGF-β1 and PDGF (Gurujeyalakshmi et al. 1999; Iyer et al. 1999; Nakazato et al. 2002).