These pFBs are crucial for the development of pulmonary fibrosis, as indicated by robust increases in collagen triple helix repeat containing 1 (CTHRC1) that regulates collagen matrix deposition, and the pathogenic ECM components such as collagen type I alpha 1 chain (COL1A1) and COL3A1 (Tsukui et al., 2020). Here, COL1A1 is linked to pulmonary fibrosis.