Transcriptome analysis of cultured human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (hPASMCs) to explore functional roles for CD26/DPP4 in stimulation with TGF-β1

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of CD26/DPP4 in hPASMCs in response to TGF-β1. In experimental methods, hPASMCs were treated as follows. The hPASMCs were cultured in Smooth Muscle Cell Growth Medium 2 with 10% fetal bovine serum and were incubated at 37 ℃ in a 5% CO2 incubator. The cells at passage 6 were used for all experiments. The PASMCs were treated with CD26/DPP4 siRNA or non-specific control siRNA for 48 hours, then stimulated with TGF-β1 or PBS for 24 hours. Transcriptome analysis revealed that TGFβ treatment in cultured hPASMCs upregu-lated genes related to pulmonary vascular SMC proliferation, involving the Notch, PI3K-Akt, and NFκB signaling pathways.Conversely, DPP4-siRNA treatment in cultured hPASMCs downregulated these pathways. Examination of cultured hPASMC treated with DPP4 knockdown (KD) +/- and TGF-β1 stimulation +/-