Project description:Radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis (RIPF) is one of the most common side effects of lung cancer radiotherapy. In the mouse lungs developing RIPF, excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix and myofibroblasts with scar formation occurs. We used microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression underlying development of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis and identified a variety of genes whose expression were up-regulated during this process.
Project description:Radiation Induced Lung Injury (RILI) is one of the main limiting factors of thorax irradiation, which can induce acute pneumonitis as well as pulmonary fibrosis, the latter being a life-threatening condition. The order of cellular and molecular events in the progression towards fibrosis is key to the physiopathogenesis of the disease, yet their coordination in space and time remains largely unexplored. Here, we present an interactive murine single cell atlas of the lung responses to irradiation. This analysis opens the door for exploration of the spatio-temporal dynamics of the mechanisms that lead to radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis. It depicts with unprecedented detail cell type-specific radiation-induced responses associated with either lung regeneration or the failure thereof. A better understanding of the mechanisms leading to lung fibrosis will help finding new therapeutic options that could improve patients’ quality of life.
Project description:Utilizing an established model of Radiation Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis, low input RNA sequencing was performed on whole lung cell suspensions obtained from 12.5 Gy thorax only radiation treated C57BL/6J mice and compareed to 0 Gy (Sham irradiation) age matched controls
Project description:Intrinsic variations in the development of lung injury among patients undergoing radiotherapy for tumors in the thoracic region suggest there are one or more genes that influence the development and severity of radiation pneumonitis and/or fibrosis. We hypothesized well-characterized murine strain differences in pulmonary response to radiation may offer a novel method to extract the specific genes and/or pathways participating in the development of pneumonitis and/or fibrosis.
Project description:Ionizing radiation is a common treatment option for cancer but its use is limited by the unpredictable and highly heterogeneous onset of late side effects, especially radiation-induced fibrosis. Clinically applicable biomarkers and effective treatments for radiation fibrosis are currently unavailable. In order to identify novel markers we ran a genome-wide DNA methylation screen in primary dermal fibroblasts obtained from breast cancer patients before intraoperative radiotherapy. Cells from patients developing fibrosis within a three-year follow up were compared to those without fibrosis (12 individuals per group). Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip Technology was used.
Project description:Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a terminal lung disease characterized by fibroblast proliferation, accumulation of extracellular matrix accumulation, inflammatory damage, and tissue structure destruction. The pathogenesis of this disease, especiallyparticularly idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), is still remains unknown. Macrophages play a significant rolemajor roles in organ fibrosis diseases, including pulmonary fibrosis. The phenotype and polarization of macrophages are closely associated with the process of pulmonary fibrosis. A new direction in drug research on for antipulmonary fibrosis is focuseds on developing drugs that maintain the stability of the pulmonary microenvironment. Here, tThrough bioinformatics analysis and experiments involving bleomycininduced pulmonary fibrosis in mice, we confirmed the importance of macrophage polarization in IPF. The analysis revealed that macrophage polarization in IPF involves a change in the phenotypice spectrum. Furthermore, the experiments demonstrated showed high expression of M2-type macrophage-related-associated biomarkers and inducible nitric oxide synthase, thus indicating an imbalance in M1/M2 polarization of pulmonary macrophages in mice with pulmonary fibrosis. Our investigation revealed that the ethyl acetate extract (HG2) obtained from the roots of Prismatomeris connataPrismatomeris connata Y. Z. Ruan exhibits therapeutic efficacy against bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. HG2 demonstrates the ability to modulates macrophage polarization, alterations in the TGF‐β/Smads pSmad pathway, and downstream protein expression in the context of pulmonary fibrosis. Drawing upon On the basis of our findings, we believe that HG2 exhibits has potential as a novel component of traditional Chinese medicine component for treating pulmonary fibrosis.
Project description:Total lung RNA from 3 mouse strains after 18Gy thoracic irradiation. Thoracic cavity radiotherapy is limited by the development of alveolitis and fibrosis in susceptible patients. To define the response to 18 Gy pulmonary irradiation in mice, at the expression level, and to identify pathways which may influence the alveolitis and fibrosis phenotypes expression profiling was completed. Male mice of three strains, A/J (late alveolitis response), C3H/HeJ (C3H, early alveolitis response) and C57BL/6J (B6, fibrosis response) were exposed to thoracic radiation, euthanised when moribund and lung tissue gene expression was assessed with microarrays. treated vs. control in 3 strains
Project description:Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic devastating disease of unknown etiology. No therapy is currently available. A growing body of evidence supports the role of TGFβ1 as the major player in the pathogenesis of the disease. This study designed novel human- and mouse-specific siRNAs and siRNA/DNA chimeras targeting both human and mouse common sequences and evaluated their inhibitory activity in pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin and lung-specific transgenic expression of human TGFβ1. Selective novel sequences of siRNA and siRNA/DNA chimeras efficiently inhibited pulmonary fibrosis, indicating their applicability as tools for treating fibrotic disease in humans. Total RNA was extracted from lung tissue from mice with bleomycin (BLM)-induced lung fibrosis treated with mouse TGFβ1 siRNAs or vehicle on different days after BLM infusion.