Previous studies of IPF lung tissues have demonstrated a reduced VEGF detection in fibroblasts with sustained expression in alveolar type II cells (AT2, ref. 20), and review of publically available datasets prepared from primary transcriptional evaluation of freshly isolated AT2 cells (GSE94555) and fibroblasts (GSE17978) confirm this finding (21, 22). This evidence concerns the gene VEGFA and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.