Fig. 5

PG expression does not affect proliferation in normal or IPF fibroblasts. The rate of proliferation remained unchanged in both normal and IPF fibroblasts following PG knockdown. Normal cells transfected with ɸsiRNA were cultured in BSA ( n = 16) and had a significant reduction in proliferation compared to all other experimental groups stimulated with PDGF which include normal Φ-siRNA (n = 6, p < 0.01), normal siRNA-PG (n = 6, p < 0.05), IPF Φ-siRNA (n = 6, p < 0.002) and IPF siRNA-PG (n = 6, p < 0.03) (a). Both normal and IPF cells treated with either ɸsiRNA or siRNA-PG were also kept in 1 % FBS (b) as a control. There were no significant differences in proliferation observed with the PDGF or 1 % FBS treatments groups. Notably, IPF lung fibroblasts were observed to proliferate to a similar degree as normal cells