Microarray Gene Expression Profiling of Fibroblast Growth Factor Ligands, their Receptors and Antagonists in Rat Liver Cells

The fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family comprises 23 structurally related proteins that display a variety of biological effects. FGFs and their receptors are important regulators of development and repair of various tissues and organs. Hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are the major source of extracellular matrix components (ECM), if these precursor cells are activated in areas of necroinflammation to proliferate and to transdifferentiate from the retinoid storing to the ECM-producing phenotype termed myofibroblast (MFB). In this study, we employed low density oligonucleotide arrays to identify the expression profi…