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Role of endothelial cells in pulmonary fibrosis via SREBP2 activation.

ABSTRACT: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive lung disease with limited treatment options. Despite endothelial cells (ECs) comprising 30% of the lung cellular composition, the role of EC dysfunction in pulmonary fibrosis (PF) remains unclear. We hypothesize that sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 (SREBP2) plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of PF via EC phenotypic modifications. Transcriptome data demonstrate that SREBP2 overexpression in ECs led to the induction of the TGF, Wnt, and cytoskeleton remodeling gene ontology pathways and the increased expression of mesenchymal genes, such as snail family transcriptional repressor 1 (snai1), α-smooth muscle actin, vimentin, and neural cadherin. Furthermore, SREBP2 directly bound to the promoter regions and transactivated these mesenchymal genes. This transcriptomic change was associated with an epigenetic and phenotypic switch in ECs, leading to increased proliferation, stress fiber formation, and ECM deposition. Mice with endothelial-specific transgenic overexpression of SREBP2 (EC-SREBP2[N]-Tg mice) that were administered bleomycin to induce PF demonstrated exacerbated vascular remodeling and increased mesenchymal transition in the lung. SREBP2 was also found to be markedly increased in lung specimens from patients with IPF. These results suggest that SREBP2, induced by lung injury, can exacerbate PF in rodent models and in human patients with IPF.

SUBMITTER: Martin M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8663776 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Role of endothelial cells in pulmonary fibrosis via SREBP2 activation.

Martin Marcy M Zhang Jiao J Miao Yifei Y He Ming M Kang Jian J Huang Hsi-Yuan HY Chou Chih-Hung CH Huang Tse-Shun TS Hong Hsiao-Chin HC Su Shu-Han SH Wong Simon S SS Harper Rebecca L RL Wang Lingli L Bhattacharjee Rakesh R Huang Hsien-Da HD Chen Zhen Bouman ZB Malhotra Atul A Rabinovitch Marlene M Hagood James S JS Shyy John Y-J JY

JCI insight 20211122 22

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive lung disease with limited treatment options. Despite endothelial cells (ECs) comprising 30% of the lung cellular composition, the role of EC dysfunction in pulmonary fibrosis (PF) remains unclear. We hypothesize that sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 (SREBP2) plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of PF via EC phenotypic modifications. Transcriptome data demonstrate that SREBP2 overexpression in ECs led to the induction of the TGF ...[more]

PMID: 34806652

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Project description:Cholesterol homeostasis plays a central role in disease pathogenesis in chronic disorders such as cardiovascular and kidney diseases. The transcription factor SREBP2 is the main regulator of cholesterol metabolism and is central to the mechanism of action of lipid lowering drugs, such as statins, that are responsible for the largest overall reduction in cardiovascular risk and mortality in humans with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Recently, SREBP2 has been implicated in both the innate and adaptive immune responses by upregulation of cholesterol flux or via direct transcriptional activation of pro-inflammatory genes in leukocytes. Here, we investigate the role of SREBP2 in endothelial cells (ECs), since ECs are at the interface of circulating lipids with tissues and are activated in response to damage and inflammation. The loss of SREBP2 in cultured human ECs results in significant alterations of the transcriptional response to inflammatory cytokines whereas SREBF2 knockdown inhibits the transcription and secretion of pro-inflammatory chemokines but amplifies type I interferon response genes. Furthermore, we show that SREBP2 regulates chemokine expression not through enhancement of endogenous cholesterol synthesis or lipoprotein uptake, but partially through direct transcriptional activation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) of endogenous SREBP2 reveals the SREBP2 bound to the promoter regions of classical response genes as well as two non-classical sterol responsive genes involved in immune modulation, BHLHE40 and KLF6. Overexpression of SREBP2 upregulated both BHLHE40 and KLF6 transcripts independent of inflammatory stress and the transcription of these genes were found to be sensitive to cellular cholesterol levels. Of these two targets, we found that KLF6 was responsible for the amplification of chemokine expression highlighting a tight relationship between cholesterol homeostasis and inflammatory phenotypes in ECs.

Dataset Information

Role of endothelial cells in pulmonary fibrosis via SREBP2 activation.

Publications

Role of endothelial cells in pulmonary fibrosis via SREBP2 activation.

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