Organ-Dependent Expression of Differentiated States in Fibroblasts Cultured in Vitro. (fibroblasts/collagen/organ-specificity/proliferation/fibronectin)

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Abstract
Mouse fibroblasts were obtained from three different organs (skin, lung and heart), cultured and investigated to know whether the fibroblasts express differentiated characters in an organ-dependent manner. Fibroblasts showed organ-dependent morphology at the confluent state. Fibroblasts were labeled with [35 S]-methionine, and the pattern of protein synthesized was electrophoretically analyzed for both cellular proteins and extracellular proteins. Though most proteins were common to three types of fibroblasts, some proteins were produced in an organ-dependent manner. Experiments on DNA synthesis and colony forming ability under a low density culture revealed that skin fibroblasts were the most proliferative among the three, while heart fibroblasts were the least. When fibroblasts were three-dimensionally cultured in collagen gels, heart fibroblasts induced the gel contraction most intensely and skin fibroblasts did the least. In accordance with the ability of contraction heart fibroblasts secreted more collagen and fibronectin than skin and lung fibroblasts. Results in the present study indicate that the fibroblasts of three organs are in the organ-dependent states of differentiation; heart fibroblasts are well differentiated while skin and lung fibroblasts are less differentiated, i.e., more proliferative and less active in the synthesis of extracellular matrices.