Table 1.

3D in vitro models, excluding lung chips, used to study pulmonary fibrosis.

3D Model	Cellular Composition	Applicability/Main Finding	Reference
Hydrogels	Human fibroblast (CCD-19lu) and primary fibroblast	FAK/Akt signaling promoting increased collagen deposition.	[25]
	Human lung fibroblast	Increased fibroblast activation and migration through matrix stiffening.	[27]
	Murine bleomycin treated lung fibroblast	PGE2 modulation of COX-2 suppression, fibroblast activation, and matrix stiffening.	[28]
	IPF and healthy human lung fibroblast	Matrix stiffening effects on proliferation, contraction, and resistance to PGE2.	[29]
	Primary human lung fibroblast	Pro-fibrotic stimuli hinder fibroblast apoptosis, altering Fas expression.	[30]
Precision Cut Lung Slices	Murine bleomycin lung slices	Protein biomarker utilization in drug screening.	[38]
	Healthy and IPF human lung slices	Modeling of early fibrosis.	[39]
	Human IPF lung tissue	Predictive markers of therapeutic response.	[40]
	Human/Murine bleomycin treated lung tissue	Differing response to Pirfenidone or Nintedanib by murine and human cultures.	[41]
Lung Organoids	Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs)	Modeling pulmonary fibrosis; antifibrotic assessment of potential therapeutic (MGF-E8)	[44]
	Murine mesenchymal and club cells	Mesenchymal support of bronchial organoid formation.	[45]
	Murine mesenchymal cells, macrophages, and bronchoalveolar stem cells	Branched bronchoalveolar organoid formation and modeling lung development.	[46]
	hPSC derived alveolar epithelial cells and primary human lung fibroblasts	Modeling pulmonary fibrosis: ALK5 and integrin aVb6 as therapeutic targets.	[47]
	Human alveolar basal cells	Bleomycin inducing honeycomb cyst formation	[48]