Fig. 1

Fibrotic marker expression in PCLS treated with a fibrotic cocktail (FC) or TGF-β1 alone. (A) Gene expression of the myofibroblast marker ACTA2, the ECM markers EDA-FN1, COL1A1, COL3A1, CCN2, and VIM, the ECM remodelling genes MMP7 and 1, and the TGF-β receptors TGFBR1 and R2 72 h after treatment with FC or TGF-β1 alone. The gene results are presented as relative gene expression (RGE) to that of the housekeeping gene B2M and were normalised to control (Ctrl) condition. (B) Concentrations of total fibronectin and type I collagen in PCLS lysate were measured by ELISA. (C) Fibronectin and type I collagen release in supernatants (SN) was measured by ELISA. (D) Immunofluorescence staining revealed that the protein content of fibronectin extra domain A (FN-EDA) was similar between FC and TGF-β1, as shown by the semi-quantification with IntDen (arbitrary units, AU). Pictures obtained at 10X magnification. (─) = 500 μm. (*) p < 0.05; (**) p > 0.01, (***) p < 0.001, (****) p < 0.0001