NFKB1 and pulmonary fibrosis: Hesperidin improves experiments on bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis through suppression of Smad3/MPK/ TGF-beta1 and NF-kB pathways, according to research by Zheng Zhou et al. When bleomycin (BLM) was administered intraperitoneally to Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats, pulmonary fibrosis was induced.