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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Biol Chem. Nov 26, 2016; 7(4): 231-239
Published online Nov 26, 2016. doi: 10.4331/wjbc.v7.i4.231
Mechanisms of the alternative activation of macrophages and non-coding RNAs in the development of radiation-induced lung fibrosis
Nadire Duru, Benjamin Wolfson, Qun Zhou
Nadire Duru, Benjamin Wolfson, Qun Zhou, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, United States
Author contributions: Duru N and Wolfson B contributed equally to this manuscript; Duru N wrote the manuscript; Wolfson B wrote and reviewed the manuscript; Zhou Q designed the aim of the review and reviewed the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Qun Zhou, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 108 North Greene Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, United States. qzhou@som.umaryland.edu
Telephone: +1-410-7061615 Fax: +1-410-7068297
Received: July 28, 2016
Peer-review started: July 31, 2016
First decision: September 2, 2016
Revised: September 17, 2016
Accepted: October 25, 2016
Article in press: October 27, 2016
Published online: November 26, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: We discuss the mechanisms of initiation and progression of radiation-induced lung fibrosis. First we summarize the role of M2 macrophages in the initiation and development of pulmonary fibrosis with an emphasis on their function in radiation-induced lung fibrosis. We then examine the growing evidence describing non-coding RNAs in the development and progression of radiation-induced lung fibrosis.