Other studies show that 10-20% of familial IPF patients carry mutations in telomerase maintenance genes (TERT, TERC, RTEL1), as well as other hazardous variants in oncogenes (TP53), cytokine (TGF-β, IL-8), and matrix remodeling (MMP1) genes [54, 55]. Here, TERT is linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.