MUC5B and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: In recent years, research on the heterogeneity of IPF has achieved some breakthroughs: genomic studies have identified gene mutations such as Telomerase mutations (TERT) (4) and Mucin 5B (MUC5B) (5) as being associated with disease risk, proteomic studies have found that CXCL13 and CCL18 are related to the rate of decline in lung function (6), and single-cell sequencing techniques have revealed the central role of abnormally activated fibroblast subgroups in the fibrosis process (7).