Figure 1. Deficiency in AREG/Egfr aggravates pulmonary hypertension.

RNA sequencing data (dbGaP genotype files: phs000998.v1.p1 NHLBI/iPSC_PulmonaryHypertension) (Rhodes et al, 2015) were analyzed. Lungs of pulmonary arterial hypertension patients and healthy controls were collected (n = 7 for controls and 6 for pulmonary arterial hypertension patients). Lungs of hypoxic and normoxic mice were harvested (n = 5 for each group). (A) The flowchart depicts the analysis of the RNASeq data obtained by Rhodes et al (2015). (B) Heat map depicting expression of the cell survival genes (expressed as log₂ FC) obtained from the RNASeq analysis. (C) Heat map showing expression of the genes downstream to AREG using qRT-PCR in human pulmonary endothelial cell line. (D, E) Confocal imaging of human (D) and mouse (E) lungs showing expression of EGFR (green) in CD31 (white)-expressing endothelial cells. Smooth muscle actin (SMA) (red) was used to stain the medial layer. The arrows depict EGFR⁺ vascular endothelial cells. (F, G) In normoxic and hypoxic Cdh5^cre/+ Egfr^fl/fl and littermate control mice, right ventricular systolic pressure (F) and lung vasculature remodeling (G) were quantified. n = 5 per group. Data are shown as mean. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ****P < 0.001.