Fig. 5: Expression of profibrotic, proinflammatory, vasculopathy, ROS, and cGAS-STING genes in fibroblasts of SSc patients.
From: Centromere defects, chromosome instability, and cGAS-STING activation in systemic sclerosis
A heatmap analysis depicting gene expression content (rows) obtained by qRT-PCR in 50 ng of RNA from skin fibroblasts dissected from healthy individuals and patients with lcSSc and dcSSc. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis was conducted to ascertain if distinct genetic signatures separate healthy fibroblasts from lesion fibroblasts. Normal samples (denoted as “control”) do not cluster with diseased samples, suggesting that gene expression alterations in fibroblasts obtained from SSc patients diverge from variations that occur at baseline in fibroblasts obtained from healthy individuals. The number of micronuclei found per 500 nuclei count and the mRSS are included in the analysis. Data obtained in three replicates were analyzed using a multiple unpaired t-test, assuming a gaussian distribution. Stars indicate statistically significant differences between the control cells and SSc patients in a t-test analysis (**p < 0.1, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001). Source Data are provided as a Source Data file.
