Figure 5

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) expression of myofibroblastic molecules before and after co-culture with epithelial cells (ECs). (a, c) When cultured alone, SSc-MSCs showed higher levels of alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) (a), collagen (Col)1A1 (b) and Col1A2 (c) compared to MSCs from healthy controls (HCs) cultured alone. Co-cultures with HC-ECs, significantly decreased the mRNA levels of these genes in HC- and MSCs from patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). On the contrary, SSc-ECs did not downregulate these gene expressions, when cultured with both HC- and SSc-MSCs (^§P = 0.0028; ^§§P = 0.0073; **P = 0.0002; ***P <0.0001). Results are expressed as median (range) of triplicate experiments. (d) Western blot analyses confirmed, at protein level, the results observed by qRT-PCR analyses. Pictures are representative of all experiments.