TNF and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: 2004; Prasse 2015). IPF results from long-term exposure to substances harming alveolar epithelial cells, and also heredity (Prasse 2015). Currently, the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis has not been clearly uncovered, but various cytokines and other molecules have been discovered to play crucial roles in the progression of pulmonary fibrosis, such as tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) (Pantelidis et al. 2001), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) (Willis et al. 2005), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) (Antoniades et al. 1990) and caveolin-1 (Cav-1) (Shivshankar et al. 2012).