Transcriptome analysis of activated fibroblasts after intratracheal transfer in bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis

Intratracheal transfer of isolated lung fibroblasts in bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis recapitulates the activation process of lung fibroblasts after epithelial injury. In order to investigate gene expression signatures of transferred fibroblasts, we purified transferred fibroblasts 2, 4, and 7 days after the transfer and performed transcriptome analysis. We also isolated Acta2 high and low cells by using Acta2-mKO1 reporter mice 4 days after the transfer. Overall design: Lung fibroblasts were isolated from untreated Col-GFP mice after tissue dissociation and negative selection for lineage markers. Isolated lung fibroblasts were intratracheally transferred into wild type mice, which received intratracheal bleomycin treatment 7 days before the transfer. Col-GFP+ cells were purified from the host lungs by FACS sorting on 2, 4, and 7 days after the transfer. Acta2 high and low cells were prepared by transferring lung fibroblasts from Acta2-mKO1 reporter mice. mRNA was isolated from sorted cells, and gene expression profiles were acquired by next generation sequencing.