Project description:Background: In utero smoke exposure is a recognized risk factor for impaired lung function development and a significant risk factor for airway disease. Despite intensive anti-tobacco campaigns the prevalence of smoking pregnant women has remained high requiring additional strategies to protect the offspring’s lung. To achieve this goal, it is critical to understand the mechanisms how disease risks are established in early life. Objective: To develop an animal model that recapitulates clinical findings in prenatally exposed children to allow the investigation of early molecular changes in the lung. Methods: Pregnant mice were exposed to active smoking from gestational day (GD) 2.5 until caesarean section or spontaneous delivery. After careful maternal characterization, we monitored weight development, lung function, and airway remodeling in offspring. mRNA/miRNA arrays were performed in fetal lungs (GD18.5), followed by network analyses, qPCR and histone analyses.
Project description:Background: In utero smoke exposure is a recognized risk factor for impaired lung function development and a significant risk factor for airway disease. Despite intensive anti-tobacco campaigns the prevalence of smoking pregnant women has remained high requiring additional strategies to protect the offspring’s lung. To achieve this goal, it is critical to understand the mechanisms how disease risks are established in early life. Objective: To develop an animal model that recapitulates clinical findings in prenatally exposed children to allow the investigation of early molecular changes in the lung. Methods: Pregnant mice were exposed to active smoking from gestational day (GD) 2.5 until caesarean section or spontaneous delivery. After careful maternal characterization, we monitored weight development, lung function, and airway remodeling in offspring. mRNA/miRNA arrays were performed in fetal lungs (GD18.5), followed by network analyses, qPCR and histone analyses.
Project description:Previous studies have shown that smoking induces oxidative stress and inflammation, known factors that coincide with the development and progression of silicosis. Nevertheless, the precise role of cigarette smoke exposure in silicosis and the underlying mechanisms are not clearly understood. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to determine the effect of smoking, if any, on silica-induced pulmonary response and the underlying mechanisms. Pulmonary toxicity and lung gene expression profiles were determined in male Fischer 344 rats exposed to air, crystalline silica, cigarette smoke or cigarette smoke plus crystalline silica. Silica exposure resulted in significant pulmonary toxicity which was further exacerbated by cigarette smoke exposure in the rats. Significant differences in the gene expression profiles were detected in the lungs of the rats exposed to cigarette smoke, silica or a combination of both compared with the control rats.
Project description:Single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNAseq) of lung immune cells from mice exposed to room air or cigarette smoke, infected with influenza A virus. Room air saline controls are also included. This analysis facilitates a comparison of cigarette smoke-associated changes to the pulmonary immune environment at the level of individual leukocytes and stromal cells.
Project description:NOXO1 KO mice seem to be protected from cigarette smoke-induced emphysema and pulmonary hypertension. Since the molecular mechanisms are not clear yet, this microarray experiment should help to identify the molecular differences in these KO mice compared to the wild-type (WT), figuring out how the protection occurs. Since we believe that vascular altertions could not only be responsible for vascular remodeling but also the trigger for emphysema development, we microdissected pre-capillary vessels from WT and KO mice, both controls and smoke-exposed. In addition, alveolar septa were microdissected to investigate the alveolar changes.
Project description:Cigarette smoke is the most relevant risk factor for the development of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Many of its more than 4500 chemicals are highly reactive, thereby altering protein structure and function. Here, we used subcellular fractionation coupled to label-free quantitative MS to globally assess alterations in the proteome of different compartments of lung epithelial cells upon exposure to cigarette smoke extract. Proteomic profiling of the human alveolar derived cell line A549 revealed the most pronounced changes within the cellular secretome with preferential downregulation of proteins involved in wound healing and extracellular matrix organization. In particular, secretion of secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine, a matricellular protein that functions in tissue response to injury, was consistently diminished by cigarette smoke extract in various pulmonary epithelial cell lines and primary cells of human and mouse origin as well as in mouse ex vivo lung tissue cultures. Our study reveals a previously unrecognized acute response of lung epithelial cells to cigarette smoke that includes altered secretion of proteins involved in extracellular matrix organization and wound healing. This may contribute to sustained alterations in tissue remodeling as observed in lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.