NHLRC2 and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: However, when the two AE-IPF patients with known smoking history were included in the analysis, ever-smokers (n = 28, median = 0.0801, IQR = 0.0566–0.0937) had significantly higher NHLRC2 expression than non-smokers (n = 17, median = 0.0582, IQR = 0.0472–0.0656) (p = 0.037).