Exosomes Facilitate Therapeutic Targeting of STAT3 in Liver Fibrosis
Hepatic fibrosis is a wound healing process which results in excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) in response to chronic hepatic injury. To determine the impact of iExosomes treatment on target cells gene expression, we extracted total RNA was  from livers using TRIzol and purified according to manufacturer instructions. RNA integrity was determined using RNA 6000 Nano Assay by the MDACC Sequencing and ncRNA Program core. Liver RNA sequencing was performed using Illumina TrueSeq stranded mRNA seq MDACC Sequencing and ncRNA Program core. Genome mapping was performed using TopHat software. We found that siSTAT3 iExosomes treatment increased the expression of 1918 genes and decreased expression of 2460 genes, whereas STAT3 mASO iExosomes treatment increased the expression of 2140 genes and decreased expression of 2021 genes. Our results indicate STAT3 is an important ECM deposition relevant-gene for future clinical treatment. Overall design: Hepatic mRNA profiles of mice from  siCntrl iExos, siSTAT3 iExos, mASO STAT3 iExos, mASO Scrbl iExos groups