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Transciptional profile of pericytes and stromal cells in bleomycin lung injury

ABSTRACT: We previously showed that pericyte-like cells derived from the FoxD1-lineage contribute to myofibroblasts following bleomycin-induced lung injury. However, their functional significance in lung fibrosis remains unknown. In this study, we used a model of lung pericyte-like cell ablation to test the hypothesis that pericyte-like cell ablation attenuates lung fibrosis in bleomycin-induced lung injury. Methods: Lung fibrosis was induced by intratracheal instillation of bleomycin. To ablate pericyte-like cells in the lung, diphtheria toxin (DT) was administered to Foxd1-Cre;Rosa26-iDTR mice at two different phases of bleomycin-induced lung injury. For early ablation, we co-administered bleomycin with DT and harvested mice at days 7 and 21. To test the effect of ablation after acute injury, we delivered DT 7 days after bleomycin administration. We assessed fibrosis by lung hydroxyproline content and semiquantitative analysis of picrosirius red-staining. We performed bronchoalveolar lavage to determine cell count and differential. We also interrogated genome-wide mRNA expression at day 7 post injury in whole lung RNA. We focused on the following cell populations for the transcriptional profiling experiments: FoxD1-derived+/Coll-GFP– pericytes (Peri), FoxD1-derived+/Coll-GFP+ pericytes (PeriFibro), and FoxD1-derived–/Coll-GFP+ stromal fibroblasts (Fibro).Results: Compared to DT-insensitive littermates where pericyte-like cells were not ablated, DT-sensitive animals exhibited no difference in fibrosis at day 21 both in the early and late pericyte ablation models. However, early ablation of pericytes reduced acute lung inflammation, as indicated by decreased inflammatory cells. Our data confirm a role for pericytes in regulating pulmonary inflammation in early lung injury.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE184761 | GEO | 2022/02/28

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Background: We previously reported on the role of pericyte-like cells as functional sentinel immune cells in lung injury. However, much about the biology of pericytes in lung injury remains unknown. Lung pericyte-like cells are well-positioned to sense disruption to the epithelial barrier and coordinate local inflammatory responses due to their anatomic niche within the alveoli. In this report, we characterized transcriptional responses and functional changes in pericyte-like cells following activation by alveolar components from injured and uninjured lungs. Methods: We purified pericyte-like cells from lung digests using PDGFR_ as a selection marker and expanded them in culture as previously described (1). We induced sterile acute lung injury in mice with recombinant human Fas ligand (rhFasL) instillation followed by mechanical ventilation (1). We then collected bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from injured and uninjured mice. Purified pericyte-like cells in culture were exposed to growth media only (control), BALF from uninjured mice, and BALF from injured mice for 6 and 24 h. RNA collected from pericyte-like cells for each of these treatment conditions underwent genome-wide sequencing using RNA-seq. Targets of interest identified by bioinformatics analysis of RNA-seq data were validated using in vitro and in vivo assays. Results: We observed robust global transcriptional changes in pericyte-like cells following treatment with uninjured and injured BALF at 6 h, but this response persisted for 24 h only after exposure to injured BALF. Functional enrichment analysis of pericytes treated with injured BALF revealed activation of immuno-inflammatory, cell migration and angiogenesis-related pathways, whereas processes associated with tissue development and remodeling were down-regulated. We validated select targets in the inflammatory, angiogenesis-related, and cell migratory pathways using functional assays in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion: Lung pericyte-like cells are highly responsive to alveolar compartment content from both uninjured and injured lungs, but injured BALF elicits a more sustained response. The inflammatory, angiogenic, and migratory changes exhibited by activated pericyte-like cells underscore the phenotypic plasticity of these specialized stromal cells in the setting of acute lung injury.

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Transciptional profile of pericytes and stromal cells in bleomycin lung injury

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