Development of gene expression signatures for Mmp19 regulation of fibroblast phenotype in mouse lungs

We have employed whole genome microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify genes with the potential to distinguish Mmp19 regulation of fibroblast phenotype changes in mouse lungs. Pulmonary fibrosis was induced by bleomycin at 0.08 u in 50ul of saline. At 21st day the mice were sacrificed and mouse lung fibroblasts were isolated and cultured in FBM plus additives following Lonza's portocol. RNA was extracted with miRNA mini kit from Qiagen. Gene expression microarray was performed with Agilent. A 834-gene consensus signature was identified that distinguished between Mmp19 knockout mice from wildtype. Some gene expression in the same RNA samples were validtaed by real-time PCR. The established bleomycin induced fibrosis was used in this experiment. At day 21 the fibrosis would be the situation of stable fibrosis. We administrated 0.08u of bleomycin intratracheally into wildtype and Mmp19 knockout mice, sacrificed the mice at 21st day and isolated the lung fibroblasts and culturing. Five independent experiments were performed and 3 for gene expression experiment.