GSE202714
Transcriptome and proteome profiling of activated cardiac fibroblasts supports target prioritization in cardiac fibrosis
Activated cardiac fibroblasts (CF) play a central role in cardiac fibrosis, a condition associated with most cardiovascular diseases. Conversion of quiescent into activated CF sustains heart integrity upon injury. However, permanence of CF in active state inflicts deleterious heart function effects. Mechanisms underlying this cell state conversion are still not fully disclosed, contributing to a limited target space and lack of effective anti-fibrotic therapies. To prioritize targets for drug development, we studied CF remodeling upon activation at transcriptomic and proteomic levels, using three different cell sources: primary adult CF (aHCF), primary fetal CF (fHCF), and induced pluripotent stem cells derived CF (hiPSC-CF). All cell sources showed a convergent response upon activation, with clear morphological and molecular remodeling associated with cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. Quantitative proteomic analysis identified known cardiac fibrosis markers, such as FN1, CCN2 and Serpine1, but also revealed targets not previously associated with this condition, including MRC2, IGFBP7 and NT5DC2. Exploring such targets to modulate CF phenotype represents a valuable opportunity for development of anti-fibrotic therapies. Also, we demonstrate that hiPSC-CF is a suitable cell source for preclinical research, displaying significantly lower basal activation level relative to primary cells, while being able to elicit a convergent response upon stimuli. Overall design: Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for quiescent and activated cardiac fibroblasts (CF) from three different sources (human adult primary CF, human fetal primary CF, human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived CF)