Given that our in vitro and in vivo studies suggested an important, non-redundant, role for Clusterin in the expression of various components of oxidative DNA damage repair pathways, we hypothesized that an abundance of oxidative DNA damage and loss of components of oxidative DNA repair pathways would be apparent in the Clusterin-deficient airway epithelial cells in IPF. Here, CLU is linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.