RICTOR and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: As observed for control fibroblasts, TGF-β1-induced collagen deposition was maintained in RICTOR-silenced cells but RPTOR gene editing resulted in near-complete inhibition of TGF-β1-induced collagen synthesis (Fig. 7e) indicating that mTORC1 is also a key signaling node during fibrogenesis in IPF fibroblasts.