As shown in Fig 3A and 3B, fibrosis markers, such as TGF-β1, fibronectin and α-SMA, were not consistently expressed at an increased level in SSc fibroblasts in the three groups, although the cell morphology was changed to become similar to myofibroblasts [17], which are differentiated from fibroblasts (Fig 3D). This evidence concerns the gene ACTA1 and systemic sclerosis.