Figure 1

Increased BMPER expression in IPF lung fibroblasts and tissues.

(a,b) BMPER protein levels were compared in primary lung fibroblasts derived from normal subjects and IPF patients with Western blot analysis (3 samples are shown). β-actin was used as a loading control. (b) Quantification of BMPER protein levels normalized to β-actin in normal and IPF lung fibroblasts by densitometry analysis (normal n = 8 and IPF n = 7; *P < 0.05, data are mean and SEM, unpaired t test). (c) BMPER mRNA expression was compared in primary lung fibroblasts derived from normal subjects and IPF patients with qRT-PCR analysis (normal n = 8 and IPF n = 7, *P < 0.05, data are mean and SEM, unpaired t test). GAPDH was used as an internal control. (d) BMPER was co-localized with α-SMA in fibrotic foci. Representative confocal photomicrographs of immunofluorescence labeling for α-SMA (green), BMPER (red) and merged (yellow) images were from normal subjects and IPF patients. Scale bars, 20 μm. The experiments were repeated three times. The full size blots were shown in the Supplementary Fig. S1.