TGFB1 and renal fibrosis: Interestingly, a recent study also revealed that decreased human lnc-TSI (TGF-β/Smad3-interacting long non-coding RNA) correlates with the degree of renal fibrosis in patients with IgA nephropathy and treatment with lnc-TSI inhibits renal fibrosis by blocking its binding to the MH2 domain of Smad3 (Wang et al., 2018).