Interestingly, the expression of revealed key upregulated DEGs reached a maximum in the acute phase of inflammation, whereas pulmonary fibrosis development was accompanied by decrease in their expression either to significantly lesser values (C3, Ccl2, Fn1, Igf1, Muc5b, Timp1) or to the level of healthy controls (C3ar1, Muc5ac, Spp1) (Figure 5A). This evidence concerns the gene C3AR1 and pulmonary fibrosis.