SMAD3 and Bloom syndrome: Further study of the regulatory mechanism of CXCL16 in BLM-induced EMT has been carried out and we found that the expression of TGF-β1 and the phosphorylation of Smad3 were significantly reduced in A549 cells when CXCL16 was silenced, which indicated that CXCL16 may regulate EMT in A549 cells via the TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway.