Myofibroblasts, characterized by expressing α-SMA (Jercan et al., 2012) is the major cell type responsible for secretion of the ECM proteins (e.g., collagen isoforms, cellular fibronectin, etc.)(Kach et al., 2013), and a significant increase in myofibroblasts has been previously observed in the skin of scleroderma patients (Krieg et al., 2007). Here, ACTA1 is linked to scleroderma.