Figure 1
From: Mechanisms of pulmonary fibrosis: role of activated myofibroblasts and NADPH oxidase
Hypothetical model of a central role of NADPH oxidase-4 (NOX4) in pathological fibrosis: Aging, environmental and genetic/epigenetic factors influence the persistent expression/activation of NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) in fibrotic tissues. This may be due to aberrations in injury repair responses or in maintenance regeneration, resulting in a failure to maintain cellular homeostasis in fibrotic tissues. Loss of tissue homeostasis is characterized by myofibroblast activation and epithelial cell dysrepair, with their attendant cellular phenotypes, that promotes pathological tissue fibrosis.