The Impact of PAD4-dependent Neutrophil Extracellular Trap formation on the Early Development of Intestinal Fibrosis in Crohn's Disease

To explore the potential profibrotic effect of neutrophil extacellular traps (NETs), we investigated the transcriptional modification that NET stimulation determines in the intestine of patients with Crohn's disease(CD). To this end, primary intestinal fibroblasts derived from the ileum of patients with CD were either coltured with NETs for 24 hours or left untreated. Bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed to evaluate the differentially expressed genes and determine the possible profibrogenic signature of this interaction. Overall design: Transcriptomic analysis of primary intestinal fibroblasts stimulated in vitro with NETs (1 ug/mL) compared to transcriptome of untreated fibroblasts from the same CD patients (n = 3).