Fig. 3

Evaluation of the gene expression of myofibroblast phenotype markers and extracellular matrix macromolecules in cultured human systemic sclerosis (SSc) skin fibroblasts. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and related analysis of the gene expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), S100A4, type I collagen (COL-1) and fibronectin (FN) in cultured human SSc skin fibroblasts maintained in normal growth medium (untreated), treated with selexipag at the concentration of 30 μM, 3 μM, and 0.3 μM, and treated with ACT-333679 at the concentration of 10 μM, 1 μM, and 0.1 μM, for 48 h. The final results represent the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of the values obtained from six independent experiments on cultured human SSc skin fibroblasts: *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 vs. untreated cells