Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Aurora A kinase activation contributes to the fibrotic phenotype in Systemic Sclerosis through primary cilia shortening
doi: 10.64898/2026.03.13.711548
Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Top: representative western blot showing the effect of SMAD3 siRNA (siSMAD3) on total SMAD3 protein level and on TGFβ-induced SMAD3 phosphorylation in healthy control (HC) and systemic sclerosis (SSc) fibroblasts, compared to scrambled siRNA (siSCR). Bottom: Densitometric quantification of SMAD3 in control (siSCR) and siSMAD3-treated HC and SSc fibroblasts (n=3 individual donors per group). (B) Quantification of cilium length in HC and SSc fibroblasts treated with siSCR or siSMAD3 and stimulated for 24 h with TGFβ. n=3 individual donors per group. (C) Top: representative western blots showing pMLC2, ppMLC2, and total MLC2, in response to treatments TGFβ with or without KD025 in three HC donor and three SSc donor fibroblast lines. Bottom: Densitometric quantification of pMLC2 normalised to MLC2 in the same condition. (D) Cilium length in HC and SSc fibroblasts treated with the ROCK2 inhibitor KD205 ± TGFβ. Mean cilia length was measured in three HC donor and three SSc donor fibroblast lines treated as indicated. All data panels were analysed by ANOVA (ns, non-significant; * P<0.05; ****P<0.0001).
Article Snippet: Proteins were transferred onto Hybond nitrocellulose membranes (Amersham) and probed with antibodies specific for αSMA (Abcam ab7817), β-Actin (Sigma A5441), CAV1 (Santa Cruz sc894), p53 (Santa Cruz sc126), acetylated-α-Tubulin (Cell Signaling 5335), MLC2 (Cell Signaling 8505), pMLC2 (Ser19) (Cell Signaling 3674), ppMLC2 (Ser19, Thr18) (Cell Signaling 3674), SMAD3 (Cell Signalling 9523), pSMAD3 (Abcam ab52903).
Techniques: Western Blot, Phospho-proteomics, Control