SMURF2 and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: Gene expression of smurf2 using a cohort of IPF tissues (102 IPF patients and 93 normal lung samples/8 early IPF patients, 9 advanced IPF patients, and 6 healthy lung samples) available from the NCBI GEO database (accession number GSE150910 and GSE24206) indicated that the smurf2 gene level was significantly downregulated in the tissues of IPF patients.