Effect of pirfenidone on serum-stimulated human lung fibroblasts

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an incurable lung disease with a poor prognosis. Fibroblasts and myofibroblasts are the key cells in the fibrotic process. Pirfenidone was approved as an anti-fibrotic drug for IPF treatment as it is able to slow disease progression. The mechanisms by which the drug acts on fibroblasts are not clear. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effects of pirfenidone on the human lung fibroblast (HLF) transcriptome in vitro. Three human lung fibroblast (HLF) samples (denoted N1, PF2, PF3) were plated at 200K cells/well and starved with serum free DMEM medium (SFM) overnight. Cells were then stimulated with 20% FBS+/- 1mM pirfenidone for another 24 hours. RNA was isolated from using the Qiagen RNeasy protocol with on-column DNase digestion and submitted for RNA sequencing.