TGFβ Drives Expression of an HSC-Activating Gene Program in Cholangiocytes.
A. Heat Map representing the gene changes in a cholangiocytes cell line (HIBEC) treated with 10ng/ml TGFβ for 48 hours (green: upregulated gene set; red: downregulated gene set). n=3
B. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) shows Integrin signaling and Hepatic Fibrosis/Hepatic Stellate Cell Activation as the most significantly upregulated pathways (inset shows 10 representative genes from the Heaptic Stellate Cell Activation Pathway).
C. RT-PCR in cholangiocytes treated with 10ng/ml TGFβ for 24 hours confirms upregulation of HSC activation genes. *p<0.01 and **p<0.001. All error bars are SEM, n=3
D. EnrichR analysis identified EZH2 as an epigenetic regulator of the cholangiocyte TGFβ response (p-vaue represents Fisher exact test).