ACTA2 and systemic sclerosis: We confirmed that 2 different shRNAs targeting MKL1 were able to decrease in SSc fibroblasts the expression of ACTA2 (encoding for ASMA), extracellular matrix associated genes (COL11A1, LOXL2, CTGF), a known myofibroblast transcription factor (GLI2) and a known profibrotic secreted factor (IGFBP7) (Fig. 4C).