RNA-seq profiling of ITPKC overexpression in normal human lung fibroblasts

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by pathogenic accumulation of scar tissue in the lung. Many of the processes implicated in fibrosis also occur following pneuomonectomy, but fibrotic changes are absent. We aimed to characterize differences between the responses to pneumonectomy and bleomycin, a fibrosis-inducing drug. We identified Itpkc as a gene uniquely up-regulated following pneumonectomy and identified it to have anti-fibrotic effects in cell culture. We then used RNA-sequencing on normal human lung fibroblasts overexpressing ITPKC or control to gain a deeper understanding of its role. Normal human lung fibroblasts overexpressing recombinant human ITPKC (n=3) or control (n=2)