Effect of STAT3 Knockdown on Gene Level Expression Profiling of hepatic stellate LX-2 Cells in response to TGF-b treatment. Homo sapiens

Transcriptome analysis of RNAs extracted from 2 hour-TGF-b-treated or untreated LX-2 cells with or without STAT3 knockdown We prepared RNA from the following groups: NS 0h: untreated cells with control non-silencing (NS) siRNA; NS 2h: 2-hour TGF-b treated cells with control NS siRNA; siSTAT3 0h: untreated cells with STAT3 siRNA; siSTAT3 2h: 2-hour TGF-b treated cells with STAT3 siRNA. The gene expression profiles were compared, and we found 202 genes were upregulated (fold > 1.5) upon TGF-b treatment in control NS siRNA transfected LX-2 cells. Among them, 128 genes were clasified as TGF-b-induced and STAT3 -dependent genes as their response to TGF-b decreased more than 40% upon STAT3 depletion (126 genes) or fold between NS control and siSTAT3 in the absence of TGF-b was > 1.5 (2 genes). The results showed that STAT3 plays an important role in regulating TGF-b target genes. Overall design: We analyzed LX-2 cells (control NS, siSTAT3) with or without TGF-b treatment (0h, 2h) using the Affymetrix GeneChip® Human Gene 2.0 ST Array platform. No techinical replicates were performed.