Fibroblast activation results in a large amount of extracellular matrix deposition, leading to lung fibrosis.19 An escalating number of studies indicated that autophagy is essential in fibroblast activation.20 As TGF-β1 is an important cytokine that induces fibroblast activation, we used it to activate HLFs. The gene discussed is TGFB1; the disease is pulmonary fibrosis.