NOGO-B promotes EMT in lung fibrosis via MMP14 mediates free TGF-beta1 formation.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a lung disease with an extremely poor prognosis. Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) appearing on the airway epithelial cell plays an essential role in the formation and development of Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In this paper, Bleomycin (BLM)-induced mice model combined with bioinformatics analysis were employed to elucidate the potential mechanism of EMT in pulmonary fibrosis. The obtained results showed that endoplasmic reticulum protein Nogo-b may promote MMP14-mediated proprotein maturation of TGF-ß1, accelerating the release of free TGF-ß1 in type II airway epithelial cells A549, subsquently, induce the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of the cell. In all, the overexpression of Nogo-b play a role in the course of pulmonary fibrosis by influencing the EMT ability of cells.