Figure 5

Human pulmonary microvascular ECs (HPMVECs) co-cultured with pulmonary arterial fibroblast-like cells (PAFLCs) or myofibroblast-like cells (MFLCs). Autophagy and Endothelial cell biology. A) Autophagy PCR array analysis of HPMVECs co-cultured with PAFLCs, MFLCs or MFLCs+Rapamycin. There were decreases in the expression of 17 autophagy-related genes in the ECs co-cultured with MFLCs in comparison those co-cultured with PAFLCs (P < 0.05; n = 3). This result is related to 3 different patients out of six of co-culture or conditioned medium. See table 1 for definitions of the abbreviations. B) Endothelial cell biology PCR array analysis of HPMVECs co-cultured with PAFLCs, MFLCs or MFLCs+Rapamycin. There were decreases in 15 and increases of 3 genes in ECs co-cultured with MFLCs in comparison to the expression in ECs co-cultured with PAFLCs (P < 0.05; n = 3). This result is related to 3 different patients out of six of co-culture or conditioned medium. See table 2 and 3 for the definitions. C) SMAD reporter signal in HPMVECs co-cultured with MFLCs. There was no statistical difference in the expression of SMAD reporter signal in ECs co-cultured with MFLCs in comparison to the expression in those co-cultured with PAFLCs treated with or without rapamycin. D) Accumulation of ROS in HPMVECs co-cultured with MFLCs. The decreased production of ROS has been detected in ECs co-cultured with MFLCs in comparison to the expression in those co-cultured with PAFLCs (P < 0.05; n = 3). Although there was a tendency that rapamycin treatment of ECs co-cultured with MFLCs reversed the decreased production of ROS, there was no statistical difference between them.