Figure 3

Critical role of HIKER/LINC02228 in regulating hypoxia-induced erythropoietic response in CMS patients.

(A) qRT-PCR results confirming the expression changes for HIKER/LINC02228 for CMS, non-CMS, and sea-level subjects under normoxia and in response to hypoxia in iPSC-derived and PBMC-derived native CD34⁺ cells. Left panels show the expression of LINC02228 at 5% O₂, and right panels show the results at 1% O₂. The figure shows the expression changes in iPSC-derived CD34⁺ cells as well as native CD34⁺ cells, as labeled in the figure. Native CD34⁺ cells: n = 5 (CMS and non-CMS cells); n = 3 (sea-level subjects). iPSC-derived CD34⁺ cells: n = 5 (CMS and non-CMS cells); n = 3 (sea-level subjects). *P < 0.05; ***P < 0.01, t tests for comparison with hypoxia and normoxia values for each sample. (B) Functional analysis of HIKER/LINC02228 in iPSC-derived CD34⁺ cells using methylcellulose colony assay. Panel shows significant reduction of BFU-E under hypoxia with KD of each lncRNA in CMS in each subject. n = 5 subjects. Each subject was tested at least 3 times. *P < 0.01. One-way ANOVA was performed in multiple comparisons, followed by Tukey’s tests.