Fig. 7From: Lumican is elevated in the lung in human and experimental acute respiratory distress syndrome and promotes early fibrotic responses to lung injurySchematic of the source and functional role of lumican in the early course of ARDS. TNF-α is a proinflammatory cytokine that is produced in the early phase of ARDS and induces the production of lumican in lung fibroblasts. Lumican then modulates fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) via the ERK/Slug signaling pathway, resulting in early profibrotic responses in ARDS. ALI acute lung injury, ARDS acute respiratory distress syndrome, EMT epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, IL interleukin, TNF-α tumour necrosis factor-alphaBack to article page