The mechanism(s) underpinning this broad anti-fibrotic/anti-inflammatory influence of combination therapy warrant further attention, but a similar pattern of activity of natriuretic peptides has been reported in acute lung injury (Koga et al., 2010); one plausible explanation and common pathway is a cGMP-mediated inhibition of NF-κB activity, perhaps via inhibition of phosphorylation and degradation of the inhibitory subunit IκB, which has been reported in vitro and in vivo (Moriyama et al., 2006; Ladetzki-Baehs et al., 2007; Das et al., 2010). Here, NFKB1 is linked to injury.