STAT3 and pulmonary fibrosis: Figure 6 demonstrates that TGF-β1 is most predominant in female sarcoidosis patients. In Figure 4, we see that gut dysbiosis augments lung fibrosis. When IL-6 induction occurs, downstream signaling can lead to either IL-17A or TGF-B1 expression. IL-17A expression leads to pulmonary inflammation. Estrogen signaling provides protection against proinflammatory fibrosis due to the capacity of the ERα to bind to the STAT3 promoter (Figure 1).