Fig. 1.

The communication of tubules and interstitial cell in kidney fibrosis. Injured tubules communicate with interstitial fibroblast and immune cells with paracrine factors including cytokines, extracellular vesicles (EVs) to amplify the pro-fibrotic responses. Xu et al. identified a vicious cycle mediated by leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF)- Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling between fibroblast and tubule epithelial cells. LIF elicits a pro-fibrotic response in both fibroblasts and renal tubular cells, which may represent a potential therapeutic target and biomarker for renal fibrosis.