ACTA1 and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: Confocal immunofluorescent microscopy demonstrated high levels of α6-expression in αSMA-positive lung myofibroblasts in fibroblastic foci of lung tissues of human subjects with IPF, as well as in fibrotic lesions following bleomycin lung injury in mice; in contrast, α6-expression was primarily observed in the airway epithelium of normal human and mouse lungs (Fig. 3a).