Transcriptomic profiling of activated-HSCs/myofibroblasts of CCl4-injured mouse liver by NanoString GeoMX DSP.

To study whether targeting Cd274/PD-L1 of activated-HSCs/myofibroblasts by Cre/loxP approach in mice altered the transcriptome of activated-HSCs/myofibroblasts so as to influence liver fibrosis induced by CCl4 Two months old Cd274+/+Col1A1Cre mice and two months old Cd274F/FCol1A1Cre mice were subjected to liver injury by intraperitoneal CCl4 injection. Cryo-sections of their livers were fixed with formalin, hybridized with the NanoString mouse whole transcriptome atlas, followed by immunofluorescence staining with anti-desmin to label activated-HSCs/myofibroblasts, and SYTO 13 for cell nuclei. Regions of Interest (ROIs) were selected for data requisition and analysis. Activated-HSCs/myofibroblasts (Desmin+ CD45-) within a ROI were collected for transcriptomic profiling. Segments 1-5 were ROIs from Cd274+/+Col1A1Cre livers and 6-10 were from Cd274F/FCol1A1Cre livers. 18 sequencing data were generated for activated-HSCs/myofibroblasts due to dual-indexing primers-based sequencing.