Fig. 4

Co-culturing with uMSC inhibited TGF-β-induced expression of MFB-specific markers. A, B Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) indicates activation of vascular smooth muscle contraction and hypertrophy cardiomyopathy functions in TGF-β1-induced MFB. C, D RNA-seq gene expression (FPKM) and qPCR validations for MFB markers, including ACTA2 (encoding for a-SMA), COL1A1, COL3A1, and FN1 in FB, MFB, and co-cultured MFB samples. E, F Western blot assays on fibronectin, COL1A1, and a-SMA proteins in FB, MFB, and co-cultured MFB samples. FPKM, fragments per kilobase of exon model per million mapped fragments. * < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001