Comprehensive transcriptome analysis of human myofibroblasts with/without the JQ-1 treatment [mRNA]

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic lung disease that normal parenchyma is progressively replaced by fibrotic foci comprised of myofibroblasts, active differentiated fibroblasts. IPF has an overall poor prognosis with median survival ranging from 2.5 to 3.5 years. The underlying disease mechanisms in IPF are largely unknown, and there is still no effective drug that prolongs survival of patients with IPF. It has been known that JQ-1, a BET bromodomain inhibitor, prevents TGF-β-mediated fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation. In this study, to obtain a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the effect of JQ-1 treatment on the dedifferentiation of established myofibroblasts, we performed comparative transcriptome analysis using the high-throughput RNA-seq. The CLC Genomic Workbench software was used to screen the differentially expressed transcripts. A total of 4,155 genes with a significantly differential expression in the JQ-1 treatment group as compared with the control group. mRNA profiles of cells were generated by RNA sequencing using the NextSeq 500 (Illumina).