Epidermal growth factor dampens pro-inflammatory gene expression induced by interferon-gamma in global transcriptome analysis of keratinocytes

The impact of EGFR ligands (i.e. EGF) on interferon signaling is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of EGF on IFN-γ transcriptional responses on a genome-wide scale in keratinocytes. RNA-seq was performed in human keratinocyte (HaCaT) cells treated with IFN-γ, EGF, both, or neither (control). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in each treatment group, relative to control, were identified using DESeq2. Our findings suggest that the pro-inflammatory IFN-γ-induced transcriptome may be globally attenuated by EGF in keratinocytes, supporting an anti-inflammatory role of EGF in the skin. Expression profiling by high throughput sequencing of three replicates each of untreated, EGF treated, IFNgamma treated and EGF plus IFNgamma treated cells.