Fig. 4

IFN-γ and PFD synergistically inhibit TGF-β1-induced differentiation of NHLFs and IPF fibroblasts into myofibroblasts. Levels of α-SMA, a marker of fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation, were determined in NHLFs and IPF fibroblasts treated with INF-γ [10–30 ng/ml], PFD [300–500 μg/ml] or a combination of IFN-γ/PFD in the presence of TGF-β1 [2.5 ng/mL] for 3 days. Upper panels show ACTA2 gene expression measured by qPCR from NHLFs (a) and IPF fibroblasts (b). Data for the relative quantification of each target gene are plotted as 2^-ΔΔCT (mean fold change) using the YWHAZ housekeeping gene as a control. Lower panels show densitometric analysis and representative blots of cell lysates from NHLFs (c) and IPF fibroblasts (d) for α-SMA with β-tubulin as a loading control. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM of 3 independent experiments, with each experiment run in duplicate. ^**P < 0.05 vs. TGF-β1 and ^## P < 0.05 vs. TGF-β1+ vehicle [DMSO]