Figure 4.

Myofibroblast differentiation on lung fibroblasts following STAT-3 inhibition. Primary lung fibroblasts were isolated, plated, and subsequently stimulated with TGF-β (10 ng/ml), IL-6/sIL-6Rα complex (40 μg/ml), and C-188-9 inhibitor (20 μM); 24 h later, RNA was isolated, and transcripts were determined for Col1α1 (A), α-SMA (B), Twist (C), and Snail (D). Transcripts were measured in parallel with 18S rRNA, and values are presented as means of fold change transcripts ± sem (n ≥ 4). *P ≤ 0.05 medium vs. TGF-β, IL-6/sIL-6Rα; ^#P ≤ 0.05 TGF-β vs. TGF-β C-188-9; and IL-6/sIL-6Rα vs. IL-6/sIL-6Rα C-188-9.