Fig. 2.

LOC344887 knockout enhances the expression of fibrotic genes. (A–B) A schematic diagram of generation of a LOC344887 knockout A549 cell line using CRISPR/Cas9 by insertion of the pac gene (for puromycin resistance), followed by a combined poly(A) and a transcriptional pause sites (A). Two primer pairs, one located upstream (primer pair 1), the other downstream (primer pair 2), of the insertion site (A) were used for qRT-PCR analysis of the mRNA level of LOC344887 (B). (C–F) LOC344887 WT and KO cells were subjected to RNA-seq analysis. A volcano plot showing differentially expressed genes in WT vs. KO cells (C). GO (D) and KEGG pathway enrichment (E) analyses were performed to analyze the enrichment of genes or pathways. Heat map showing the differential expression of fibrotic genes in WT vs. KO cells (F). *: P < 0.05 between two different groups.