Abnormal alveolar wound repair contributes to the development of pulmonary fibrosis after lung injury. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a potent mitogenic factor for alveolar epithelial cells and may therefore improve alveolar epithelial repair in vitro and in vivo. We hypothesized that HGF could increase alveolar epithelial repair in vitro and improve pulmonary fibrosis in vivo. Alveolar wound repair in vitro was determined using an epithelial wound repair model with HGF transfected A549 alveolar epithelial cells. Electroporation-mediated, non-viral gene transfer of HGF in vivo was performed 7 days after bleomycin-induced lung injury in the rat. Alveolar epithelial repair in vitro was increased after transfection of wounded epithelial monolayers with a plasmid encoding human HGF, pCikhHGF (human HGF gene expressed from the CMV immediate-early promoter and enhancer) compared to medium control. Electroporation-mediated in vivo HGF gene transfer using pCikhHGF 7days after intratracheal bleomycin reduced pulmonary fibrosis as assessed by histology and hydroxyproline determination 14 days after bleomycin compared to controls treated with the same vector not containing the HGF sequence (pCik). Lung epithelial cell proliferation was increased and apoptosis reduced in hHGF-treated lungs compared to controls, suggesting increased alveolar epithelial repair in vivo. In addition, profibrotic TGF-1 was decreased in hHGF-treated lungs, indicating an involvement of TGF-1 in hHGF-induced reduction of lung fibrosis. In conclusion, electroporation-mediated gene transfer of hHGF decreases bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis, possibly by increasing alveolar epithelial cell proliferation and reducing apoptosis, resulting in improved alveolar wound repair.