Reportedly, sorafenib, an xCT inhibitor, can inhibit the TGF-β/Smad3-induced EMT signaling (Jia et al., 2015) and suppress the CXCR3/CXCL11-mediated macrophage infiltration (Ma et al., 2016), ameliorating renal fibrosis. Here, SMAD3 is linked to renal fibrosis.