Differential gene expression of canine dermal fibroblasts conditioned with serum of dogs with and without atopic dermatitis

The study aimed to compare the gene expression of canine dermal fibroblast grown in medium enriched with serum from healthy dogs (CTRL, 10 subjects), dogs with atopic dermatitis (CAD, 10 subjects), and fetal bovine serum (FBS). RNA was extracted from the cells and sequenced using the Illumina protocol and reads annotated to CanFam. The number of significantly (P < 0.01) differentially up regulated genes (DEG) accounted for 528, 3794 and 3281 for the CRTL vs. FBS, CAD vs. FBS and CAD vs. CTRL comparison, respectively. The down regulated DEG were 168, 2755, and 3281 for the comparison CTRL vs. FBS, CAD vs. FBS, and CAD vs. CTRL. Gene enrichment in ontology terms and KEGG pathways showed that extracellular matrix (ECM) signaling was up regulated and oxidative phosphorylation was down regulated in fibroblasts incubated with CAD serum than those treated with FBS and CTRL, no differences were found when comparing CTRL with FBS. The CAD treatment resulted in a significant down regulation of MMP3 and up regulation of ITGA, ITGB, COL1A1 and FN1 mediated by activation of TGFB1 and MAPK1. Conversely, HK1 was significantly up regulated and NADH dehydrogenases, succinate dehydrogenases/fumarate reductases, cytochrome C oxidases, and reductases were significantly down regulated. These data indicated a pro-fibrotic feature of fibroblast after incubation with CAD serum.