TERT and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: Additionally, their findings illustrate that AAV9-mediated TERT expression downregulated various fibroblast growth factor-related factors in Wnt/transforming growth factor (TGF)-β pathways, whereas regeneration-related genes (DNA replication, DNA repair, and leukocyte transendothelial migration) were upregulated, showing that TERT gene transfer can simultaneously prevent fibrosis and improve the regenerative capacity of the lungs to effectively treat IPF.