Fig. 3.

Effects of exosomes isolated from the serum of SSc patients on the expression of profibrotic genes in cultured normal human dermal fibroblasts. A. COL1A1, COL3A1, and FN. B. FN-EDA, α-SMA (ACTA2) and COMP. C. CTGF, and TGF-β. Three concentrations of added exosomes (2.5, 5 or 10 μg) determined by protein concentration of the isolated exosomes were examined. Each concentration was added to triplicate cultures of confluent normal human dermal fibroblasts incubated with 1 ml of culture media. Each value shown represents the mean (± SD) fold change levels of gene expression from each treatment group. Triplicate wells of fibroblasts treated with individual exosome preparations for each treatment group (Normal: 2 samples; Limited and Diffuse SSc: 3 samples each). C(t) levels were normalised to GAPDH. Content levels from the saline-treated fibroblasts were arbitrarily set at the 100% expression level. Values for other samples are expressed relative to this control. Significance was determined by Student’s T-test. Statistical significance: **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.