RNA-seq time series of lung epithelial and lung mesenchymal cells in a novel co-culture model of lung fibrosis

The interaction of lung epithelial and lung mesenchymal cells (fibroblasts) was investigated in a novel co-culture model of human pulmonary fibrosis. Remarkably, co-culturing both cell types induced cell-type-specific responses, including fibroblast-to-myofibroblast differentiation and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which were fully dependent on direct epithelial / fibroblast contact. Primary normal human lung fibroblasts (NHLF) and normal human bronchiolar epithelial cells (NHBE) were fluorescently labelled prior to seeding, then grown either as mono or co-cultures and collected in triplicates for mRNA-seq at the start (T=0h) and after 3h and 18h. Each harvested cell culture was FACS sorted into individual NHLF and NHBE cell populations, which were then then lysed and sequenced.