Figure 1

Lung fibroblasts from patients with fibrotic lung diseases are resistant to apoptosis.A: Characterization of isolated fibroblasts using flow cytometry with lineage-specific monoclonal antibodies. Immunoreactivity was detected after staining with the fibroblasts specific anti-Thy-1, D7-fib and anti-P-4-H antibodies, but not with anti-CD45 and anti-CD68 antibodies. The specificity of the immunostaining (solid line) was tested using irrelevant isotype controls (dotted line). All fibroblasts samples were analyzed and representative figures were presented. B: Matrix deposition by isolated fibroblasts as determined by a [³H]proline incorporation. Fibroblasts derived from patients with lung fibrosis deposited more extracellular matrix (solid circles) and collagen (open circles) than non-fibrotic fibroblasts (solid and open squares). C: Increased apoptosis in lung fibroblasts (upper panel) compared to synovial fibroblasts (lower panel). Apoptosis was induced by incubation with Fas ligand (rhFasL) and measured after TUNEL staining. Lung fibroblasts showed significantly more apoptosis resistance. D: Increased resistance to pro-apoptotic signals in fibrotic fibroblasts (square) compared to control fibroblasts (circle). Apoptosis was induced by rhFasL after pre-incubation with TNF-alpha. Apoptosis was measured by quantification of histone-bound DNA fragments.