Figure 3
Hypothetical diagram for kidney fibrosis. Chronic injury causes dysfunction of the tubular epithelial cells, which triggers release of fibrogenic cytokines and recruitment of inflammatory cells to injured kidneys. Myelo-monocytic cells recruited from the bone marrow produce TGF-β1 in injured kidneys. In turn, TGF-β1 induces activation of collagen-producing cells, which mostly arise from kidney resident cells through epithelial-mesenchymal transition (modified [24]).