Figure 1

Clinical significance of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. (a) Patients who underwent NSCLC resection in our hospital were divided into LC-IPF (n = 512) and LC-non-IPF groups (n = 26). Clinical outcome data including overall survival, relapse-free survival and cancer-specific survival among groups were compared using Kaplan–Meier methods. (b) Based on RNA-seq results, a total of 85 genes were upregulated with a more than twofold change in DIPF compared to NHLF (one fibroblast cell line from each group examined, analysis performed once). The Venn diagram in the left panel shows genes related to cancer selected from ‘The Atlas of Genetics and Cytogenetics in Oncology and Haematology, genes related to extracellular proteins, and genes related to IPF. The numbers in the Venn diagram represent the number of genes corresponding to the criteria. Ten genes are identified as common genes within these categories. Details of these 10 identified genes are shown in the right panel. Ratios of NHLF to DIPF (left, the darker the green, the smaller the value) and DIPF to NHLF (right, the darker the red, the larger the value) are shown. (c) HE staining and periostin immunostaining of pathological specimens from patients with resected LC of LC-IPF and LC-non-IPF, respectively. Solid and dashed squares show enlarged images of non-tumor and tumor stroma areas, respectively. Scale bars, 0.5 mm in upper and middle panels; 100 μm in lower panels. (d) LC-non-IPF (n = 26) and LC-IPF (n = 26) specimens quantified for the area of periostin-positive tissue relative to the area of tissue. (e–g) Expression of periostin in NHLF and DIPF cells as compared by RT-PCR (e), WB (f), and ELISA (g). Statistical significance was tested with the log-rank test (a) or the Mann–Whitney U test (d,e,g). **P < 0.01. LC-IPF, NSCLC patient with IPF; LC-non-IPF, NSCLC patient without IPF; mo, months; RNA-Seq, ribonucleic acid sequencing; WB, Western blot; NHLF, normal human lung fibroblast; DIPF, diseased human lung fibroblast-IPF; SULF1, sulfatase 1; CTHRC1, collagen triple helix repeat containing 1; LOX, lysyl oxidase; SPARC, secreted protein acidic and cysteine rich; LOXL2, lysyl oxidase-like 2; POSTN, periostin; CTGF, connective tissue growth factor, COL1A2, collagen type I alpha 2 chain; COL1A1, collagen type I alpha 1 chain; S100A4, S100 calcium-binding protein A4.