Furthermore, our study also demonstrated that environmental cadmium (Cd) exposures and smoking increased citrullinated vimentin in the bronchoalveolar lavages and serum of patients with IPF (Li et al., 2021) suggesting that citrullinated vimentin acts as a spearhead of inflammatory reactions that over time give rise to fibrotic scar formation of the lung and cause IPF. Here, VIM is linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.