Tian et al. treated bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in rats with emodin (20 mg/kg) and found that emodin protected rats from pulmonary fibrosis by inhibiting the activation of NF-κB and reducing the expression of pro-inflammatory factors, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) [21]. This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and pulmonary fibrosis.