COL1A1 and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: A number of studies have reported that type I (COL1A1) collagen and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP1 and MMP7) are fibrotic genes associated with the occurrence and prognosis of IPF (Ivan et al., 2008; Giménez et al., 2017; Adegunsoye et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020; Xu et al., 2020; Mishra et al., 2021).