Moreover, comparing these key genes to the publically available GSE134692 dataset [16], we found that three of the genes (CXCL8, LIF, PTGS2) showed the same direction of regulation among IPF and non-IPF samples, whereas ICAM1 and IL7R were differentially regulated between the datasets (Supplementary Figure 1B). Here, IL7R is linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.