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PDGF and TGFB are the main profibrotic genes. We evaluated PDGFA, TGFB1, TGFB2, and TGFB3 role in the diagnosis of ILD associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic sclerosis (SSc), and inflammatory myopathies (IM). Blood was collected from 289 patients:33 RA-ILD, 31 SSc-ILD, 29 IM-ILD; and 22 RA-nonILD, 18 SSc-nonILD, 8 IM-nonILD; and 148 idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The relative expression was quantified by qPCR. Lower PDGFA, TGFB1, and TGFB2 expression differentiated RA-ILD from RA-nonILD patients, acting as ILD early diagnostic biomarkers in RA with cut-offs of &lt;0.01153, &lt;0.3185, and &lt;0.001410, respectively. SSc-ILD patients revealed decreased TGFB2 expression compared to SSc-nonILD patients, with a cut-off of &lt;0.0018 identifying ILD in SSc. PDGFA and TGFB2 expression discriminated IM-ILD from IPF acting as accurate diagnostic biomarkers with cut-offs of &gt;0.0166 and &gt;0.001547, respectively. PDGFA and TGFB2, as well as TGFB2 and TGFB3 expression were associated with RA-ILD and SSc-ILD prognosis, respectively. PDGFA and TGFB are promising blood biomarkers with clinical value for the early and accurate CTD-ILD diagnosis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms262110722","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T11:11:16Z","timestamp":1762254676000},"page":"10722","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["A New Approach for Achieving Earlier and More Accurate Diagnosis of Connective Tissue Disease-Related Interstitial Lung Disease: TGFB and PDGFA as Novel Promising Biomarkers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3534-8467","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ver\u00f3nica","family":"Pulito-Cueto","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7119-0786","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bel\u00e9n","family":"Atienza-Mateo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-5315-9202","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joao C.","family":"Batista-Liz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rebeca","family":"Nieto-Nieto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Clara","family":"Vaquera-Illescas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mar\u00eda","family":"Sebasti\u00e1n Mora-Gil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5241-266X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David","family":"Iturbe-Fern\u00e1ndez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Pneumology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8161-0462","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"V\u00edctor M.","family":"Mora-Cuesta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Pneumology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-0679-3766","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ana","family":"Serrano-Combarro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sheila","family":"Izquierdo-Cuervo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Pneumology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carolina","family":"Aguirre Portilla","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jos\u00e9 M.","family":"Cifri\u00e1n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Pneumology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2344-2285","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ricardo","family":"Blanco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Raquel","family":"L\u00f3pez-Mej\u00edas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunopathology Group, Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla University Hospital-IDIVAL, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario Marqu\u00e9s de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"143","DOI":"10.1136\/annrheumdis-2020-217230","article-title":"Mechanisms of Progressive Fibrosis in Connective Tissue Disease (CTD)-Associated Interstitial Lung Diseases (ILDs)","volume":"80","author":"Spagnolo","year":"2021","journal-title":"Ann. 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