SMAD3 and Myocardial fibrosis: Smad7 has a myocardial protective effect, and its overexpression could reverse Smad3-mediated myocardial fibrosis and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB)-driven inflammation (Frangogiannis, 2022; Ghafouri-Fard et al., 2023; Qin et al., 2023; Seksaria et al., 2023; Yang et al., 2023).