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.本研究旨在对三个不同发育阶段的心脏成纤维细胞（cardiac fibroblast）转录组（transcriptome）进行图谱绘制，以探究此类细胞中随年龄变化的基因表达差异——这类细胞对细胞外基质周转与修复、炎症过程以及损伤后心脏重构均具有至关重要的作用。为此，我们从处于胎儿期、新生期及成年期发育阶段的斯普拉格-道利大鼠（Sprague Dawley rats）体内分离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学差异，结果表明心脏成纤维细胞的免疫及炎症相关基因表达随年龄增长而上调，而心脏发育相关基因及通路的表达则呈下调趋势。本研究结果进一步佐证了已有研究结论，即心脏成纤维细胞的表型异质性随年龄存在显著差异。