Figure 9.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) matrices induce α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression in normal human lung fibroblasts. (A) Western blot analysis of normal human lung fibroblasts cultured within human acellular normal or IPF lung matrix. The same cells at the same passage were cultured in matrices for 48 hours before harvesting. IPF lung matrix significantly induced α-SMA. Bar graphs depict the mean (± SEM) densitometric ratio of α-SMA normalized to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). The blot is representative of triplicate experiments using three different primary cell lines and matrices derived from three separate individuals. (B) α-SMA immunohistochemistry of normal fibroblasts seeded within normal (left panel) or IPF (right panel) matrices for 48 hours; 20× magnification.