In our previous studies, we showed that absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) inflammasome, a multimeric protein complex, was responsible for the release of IL-1α and TGF-β by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients (9). Here, TGFB1 is linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.