The small heat‐shock protein αB‐crystallin is essential for the nuclear localization of Smad4: impact on pulmonary fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating disease characterized by the proliferation of myofibroblasts and the accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the lungs. TGF-β1 is the major profibrotic cytokine involved in IPF and is responsible for myofibroblast proliferation and differentiation and ECM synthesis. αB-crystallin is constitutively expressed in the lungs and is inducible by stress, acts as a chaperone and is known to …