Fig. 7

rhIL-11 mediates human pulmonary artery endothelial cell (HPAEC) to mesenchymal transition (EnMT) through the canonical JAK/STAT3 and non-canonical ERK/SMAD3 pathways. A HPAECs and B HPASMC were isolated from control donor subjects, incubated with a JAK/STAT3 inhibitor JSI-124, ERK inhibitor PD98059 or SMAD3 inhibitor SIS3 during 30 min, followed by the stimulation of cells with rhIL-11 5 ng/ml during 48 h. Experiments were done between passages 2–3. mRNA transcripts of different genes were measured by quantitative PCR (qPCR) as 2^−ΔCt. Data are presented as scatter dot blot with median and interquartile range values (for primary cells, n = 4 control subjects performed in triplicate). P-values are based on the Kruskal–Wallis test and Dunn’s post-hoc test for multiple comparison