RNA-seq analysis of rat cardiac fibroblast transcriptome at three distinct developmental ages

The purpose of this study was to map the cardiac fibroblast transcriptome at three distinct developmental ages to investigate age-dependent gene expression differences in these cells, which are critically important to extracellular matrix turnover and repair, the inflammatory process, and cardiac remodeling after injury. To do so we isolated RNA from Sprague Dawley rats at fetal, neonatal, and adult developmental stages and performed RNA-seq. Overall, we identified an array of transcriptomic differences with respect to developmental age that suggests that CFs increase expression of immune- and inflammation-associated genes with age, with a decrease in cardiac development-associated genes and pathways. These results reinforce established evidence of phenotypic heternogenity of CFs with respect to age.

本研究旨在解析三种不同发育阶段下的心脏成纤维细胞（cardiac fibroblast）转录组（transcriptome），以探究此类细胞的年龄依赖性基因表达差异。心脏成纤维细胞对于细胞外基质（extracellular matrix）周转与修复、炎症过程以及损伤后心脏重构均具有关键作用。为此，我们从处于胚胎期、新生期及成年发育阶段的斯普拉格-道利大鼠（Sprague Dawley rats）体内分离总RNA，并开展RNA测序（RNA-seq）实验。整体而言，我们鉴定出一系列与发育年龄相关的转录组差异：随着年龄增长，心脏成纤维细胞的免疫与炎症相关基因表达水平上调，而心脏发育相关基因及通路的表达则出现下调。本研究结果进一步验证了已有研究中关于心脏成纤维细胞随年龄变化存在表型异质性的结论。