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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2017 Oct 11;41(11):1875–1885. doi: 10.1111/acer.13496

Figure 11. Proposed pathway outlining how alcohol augments TGFβ1 expression in the murine lung fibroblast.

Figure 11

Alcohol exposure increases miR-21. Smad7 protein expression is then suppressed by miR-21. Inhibition of Smad7 leads to an increase in TGFβ1 signaling and augmentation of TGFβ1 gene and protein expression. TGFβ1 then amplifies miR-21 gene expression via positive feedback and inhibits Nrf2 (as previously shown by our group). MiR-21 and Smad7 expression can be normalized by the Nrf2 activator, SFP, which diminishes TGFβ1 and TGFβ1-mediated amplification of miR-21.