Fibrosis is a common pathology in cardiovascular disease1. In the heart, fibrosis causes mechanical and electrical dysfunction1,2 and in the kidney, it predicts the onset of renal failure3. Transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) is the principal pro-fibrotic factor4,5, but its inhibition is associated with side effects due to its pleiotropic roles6,7. We hypothesized that downstream effectors of TGFβ1 in fibroblasts could be attractive therapeutic targets and lack upstream toxicity. Here we show, using integrated imaging–genomics analyses of primary human fibroblasts, that upregulation of interleukin-11 (IL-11) is the dominant transcriptional response to TGFβ1 exposure and required for its pro-fibrotic effect. IL-11 and its receptor (IL11RA) are expressed specifically in fibroblasts, in which they drive non-canonical, ERK-dependent autocrine signalling that is required for fibrogenic protein synthesis. In mice, fibroblast-specific Il11 transgene expression or Il-11 injection causes heart and kidney fibrosis and organ failure, whereas genetic deletion of Il11ra1 protects against disease. Therefore, inhibition of IL-11 prevents fibroblast activation across organs and species in response to a range of important pro-fibrotic stimuli. These results reveal a central role of IL-11 in fibrosis and we propose that inhibition of IL-11 is a potential therapeutic strategy to treat fibrotic diseases.

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Bulk molybdenum disulfide is known to be a nonmagnetic material. We have synthesized edge-oriented MoS2 nanosheet-like films that exhibit weak magnetism ( approximately 1-2 emu/g) and 2.5% magnetoresistance effects with a Curie temperature of 685 K. The magnetization is related to the presence of edge spins on the prismatic edges of the nanosheets. Spin-polarized calculations were performed on triangular-shaped cluster models in order to provide insight into the origin of magnetism on the edges as well as the size-property correlation in these MoS2 nanosheets. Our results imply that nanostructured films with a high density of edge spins can give rise to magnetism even though the bulk material is nonmagnetic.