Figure 2.

Persistent stimulation of MSCs by TNFα + IL-1β leads to prominent alterations in gene expression and in fibroblast-relevant transcriptional programs in the resulting CAF-like cells. Human MSCs were exposed to “persistent” stimulation by TNFα and/or IL-1β for 14 days or to “short” stimulation of 48 h (concentrations as in Figure 1) in three independent biological repeats, followed by RNAseq analyses. Control cells were treated using the vehicles of the cytokines. (A) Heat maps. Deseq-normalized counts, values were centered. (B) Venn diagrams. Upregulated genes: FC > 2, padj < 0.05; downregulated genes: FC < 0.5, padj < 0.05. (C) Fibroblast-relevant transcriptional programs that were significantly modified by persistent TNFα + IL-1β stimulation, at FC > 2 or FC < 0.5 and padj < 5 × 10⁻¹⁰, are demonstrated.