VIM and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Moreover, Nishioka et al. found that fibroblast secretions in COPD lung lesions can upregulate vimentin and E-cadherin expression in epithelial cells and promote EMT, indicating that fibroblast and epithelium interaction may contribute to EMT in COPD,8 however, there is no relevant research on how fibroblasts regulate EMT in epithelial cells.