Epithelial cell-derived cytokines CST3 and GDF15 as potential therapeutics for pulmonary fibrosis.

ABSTRACT: While wound healing is completed, the epithelium functions to normalize the interstitial context by eliminating fibroblasts excited during matrix reconstruction. If not, tissues undergo pathologic fibrosis. Pulmonary fibrosis is a fatal and hardly curable disorder. We here tried to identify epithelium-derived cytokines capable of ameliorating pulmonary fibrosis. Human lung fibroblasts were inactivated in epithelial cell-conditioned media. Cystatin C (CST3) and growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) were found to be enriched in the conditioned media and to inhibit the growth and activation of lung fibroblasts by inactivating the TGF-Smad pathway. In mouse and human lungs with interstitial fibrosis, CST3 and GDF15 expressions were markedly reduced, and the restoration of these cytokines al

SUBMITTER: Kim YI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5938700 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature