ACTA1 and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: After experiments, it was found that while coculturing control-derived AMs with control-derived fibroblasts led to a reduction in fibroblast-α-SMA expression, direct cocultures of control-derived AMs with IPF-derived fibroblasts resulted in increased fibronectin, collagen I and III as well as α-SMA gene expression pointing to potential myofibroblast differentiation [42].