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Project description:Rationale: Although epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a common feature of fibrotic lung disease, its role in fibrogenesis is controversial. Recently, aberrant basaloid cells were identified in fibrotic lung tissue as a novel epithelial cell type displaying a partial EMT phenotype. The developmental origin of these cells remains unknown. Objectives: To elucidate the role of EMT in the development of aberrant basaloid cells from human bronchial epithelium by mapping EMT-induced transcriptional changes at the population and single-cell level. Methods: Human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs) grown as submerged or air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures with or without EMT induction were analyzed by bulk and single-cell RNA-Sequencing. Measurements and Main Results: Comparison of submerged and ALI cultures revealed differential expression of 9,868—protein coding (PC) and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)—genes and revealed epithelial cell-type-specific lncRNAs. Similarly, EMT induction in ALI cultures resulted in robust transcriptional reprogramming of 6,927—PC and lncRNA—genes. While there was no evidence for fibroblast/myofibroblast conversion, cells displayed a partial EMT gene signature and an aberrant basaloid-like cell phenotype. Conclusions: The substantial transcriptional differences between submerged and ALI cultures highlights that care must be taken when interpreting data from submerged cultures. This work supports that lung epithelial EMT does not generate fibroblasts/myofibroblasts and confirms ALI cultures provide a physiologically relevant system to study aberrant basaloid-like cells and mechanisms of EMT. We provide a catalog of PC and lncRNA genes and a data visualization package for further exploration for potential roles in the lung epithelium in health and lung disease.
2022-04-21 | GSE193683 | GEO
Project description:Rationale: Although epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a common feature of fibrotic lung disease, its role in fibrogenesis is controversial. Recently, aberrant basaloid cells were identified in fibrotic lung tissue as a novel epithelial cell type displaying a partial EMT phenotype. The developmental origin of these cells remains unknown. Objectives: To elucidate the role of EMT in the development of aberrant basaloid cells from human bronchial epithelium by mapping EMT-induced transcriptional changes at the population and single-cell level. Methods: Human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs) grown as submerged or air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures with or without EMT induction were analyzed by bulk and single-cell RNA-Sequencing. Measurements and Main Results: Comparison of submerged and ALI cultures revealed differential expression of 9,868—protein coding (PC) and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)—genes and revealed epithelial cell-type-specific lncRNAs. Similarly, EMT induction in ALI cultures resulted in robust transcriptional reprogramming of 6,927—PC and lncRNA—genes. While there was no evidence for fibroblast/myofibroblast conversion, cells displayed a partial EMT gene signature and an aberrant basaloid-like cell phenotype. Conclusions: The substantial transcriptional differences between submerged and ALI cultures highlights that care must be taken when interpreting data from submerged cultures. This work supports that lung epithelial EMT does not generate fibroblasts/myofibroblasts and confirms ALI cultures provide a physiologically relevant system to study aberrant basaloid-like cells and mechanisms of EMT. We provide a catalog of PC and lncRNA genes and a data visualization package for further exploration for potential roles in the lung epithelium in health and lung disease.
2022-04-21 | GSE193682 | GEO
Project description:Bronchial epithelium epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity forms aberrant basaloid-like cells in vitro
| PRJNA797240 | ENA
Project description:Bronchial epithelium epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity forms aberrant basaloid-like cells in vitro [bulkRNA-seq]
| PRJNA797245 | ENA
Project description:Bronchial epithelium epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity forms aberrant basaloid-like cells in vitro [scRNA-seq]
| PRJNA797244 | ENA
Project description:In idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), keratin (KRT)17+/KRT5+ basal and KRT17+/KRT5- aberrant basaloid cells are atypically present within the alveolar space. We previously described the fibrosis-enriched outgrowth of alveolar basal cells from peripheral fibrotic lung tissue. Using single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), we here characterize the transcriptome of these cultured alveolar basal cells under different culture conditions.MethodsFibrotic peripheral lung tissue pieces were placed in DMEM growth medium. Outgrown cells were analysed by scRNA-seq, TaqMan-PCR or immunofluorescence (IF) either directly or after medium change to an epithelial cell specific medium (Cnt-PR-A).ResultsA fraction of alveolar basal cells cultured in DMEM growth medium showed close transcriptomic similarities to IPF basal cells. However, although they expressed KRT5, the transcriptome of the majority of cells matched best to the transcriptome of recently described KRT17+/KRT5- aberrant basaloid cells, co-expressing the canonical basal cell marker KRT17 and mesenchymal cell marker (VIM, FN1). A smaller fraction of cells matched best to secretory epithelial cells. Two differentiation gradients from basal to aberrant basaloid-like cells and basal to secretory epithelial-like cells were apparent. Interestingly, these differentiation paths seemed reversed when the cell culture medium was changed to Cnt-PR-A.ConclusionsOur results suggest that cultured alveolar basal cells have the capacity to differentiate towards secretory epithelial-like cells and to aberrant basaloid-like cells. However, due to the persistent expression of KRT5, a complete differentiation towards aberrant basaloid cells did not seem to be achieved in our culture conditions. Importantly, differentiation seemed reversible by changing the cells microenvironment. Determining specific factors influencing these differentiation paths may help to define novel drug targets for IPF therapy.
| S-EPMC9180703 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The asthma-associated gene urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) may be involved in epithelial repair and airway remodelling. These processes are not adequately targeted by existing asthma therapies. A fuller understanding of the pathways involved in remodelling may lead to development of new therapeutic opportunities. uPAR expression in the lung epithelium of normal subjects and patients with asthma was investigated and the contribution of uPAR to epithelial wound repair in vitro was studied using primary bronchial epithelial cells (NHBECs).Bronchial biopsy sections from normal subjects and patients with asthma were immunostained for uPAR. NHBECs were used in a scratch wound model to investigate the contribution of the plasminogen pathway to repair. The pathway was targeted via blocking of the interaction between urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and uPAR and overexpression of uPAR. The rate of wound closure and activation of intracellular signalling pathways and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were measured.uPAR expression was significantly increased in the bronchial epithelium of patients with asthma compared with controls. uPAR expression was increased during wound repair in monolayer and air-liquid interface-differentiated NHBEC models. Blocking the uPA-uPAR interaction led to attenuated wound repair via changes in Erk1/2, Akt and p38MAPK signalling. Cells engineered to have raised levels of uPAR showed attenuated repair via sequestration of uPA by soluble uPAR.The uPAR pathway is required for efficient epithelial wound repair. Increased uPAR expression, as seen in the bronchial epithelium of patients with asthma, leads to attenuated wound repair which may contribute to the development and progression of airway remodelling in asthma. This pathway may therefore represent a potential novel therapeutic target for the treatment of asthma.
| S-EPMC3358731 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We performed a single-cell transcriptome analysis of alveolar basal cells from peripheral lung tissue of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), cultured in DMEM or Cnt-PR-A growth medium.
2022-06-15 | GSE198153 | GEO
Project description:Organotypic culture of human primary bronchial epithelial cells is a useful in vitro system to study normal biological processes and lung disease mechanisms, to develop new therapies, and to assess the biological perturbations induced by environmental pollutants. Herein, we investigate whether the perturbations induced by cigarette smoke (CS) and observed in the epithelium of smokers' airways are reproducible in this in vitro system (AIR-100 tissue), which has been shown to recapitulate most of the characteristics of the human bronchial epithelium. Human AIR-100 tissues were exposed to mainstream CS for 7, 14, 21, or 28 min at the air-liquid interface, and we investigated various biological endpoints [e.g., gene expression and microRNA profiles, matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1) release] at multiple postexposure time points (0.5, 2, 4, 24, 48 h). By performing a Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, we observed a significant enrichment of human smokers' bronchial epithelium gene signatures derived from different public transcriptomics datasets in CS-exposed AIR-100 tissue. Comparison of in vitro microRNA profiles with microRNA data from healthy smokers highlighted various highly translatable microRNAs associated with inflammation or with cell cycle processes that are known to be perturbed by CS in lung tissue. We also found a dose-dependent increase of MMP-1 release by AIR-100 tissue 48 h after CS exposure in agreement with the known effect of CS on this collagenase expression in smokers' tissues. In conclusion, a similar biological perturbation than the one observed in vivo in smokers' airway epithelium could be induced after a single CS exposure of a human organotypic bronchial epithelium-like tissue culture.
| S-EPMC3627940 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Eosinophilic inflammation and remodeling of the airways including subepithelial fibrosis and myofibroblast hyperplasia are characteristic pathological findings of bronchial asthma. Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in airway remodelling. In this study, we hypothesized that infiltrating eosinophils promote airway remodelling in bronchial asthma. To demonstrate this hypothesis we evaluated the effect of eosinophils on EMT by in vitro and in vivo studies. EMT was assessed in mice that received intra-tracheal instillation of mouse bone marrow derived eosinophils and in human bronchial epithelial cells co-cultured with eosinophils freshly purified from healthy individuals or with eosinophilic leukemia cell lines. Intra-tracheal instillation of eosinophils was associated with enhanced bronchial inflammation and fibrosis and increased lung concentration of growth factors. Mice instilled with eosinophils pre-treated with transforming growth factor(TGF)-?1 siRNA had decreased bronchial wall fibrosis compared to controls. EMT was induced in bronchial epithelial cells co-cultured with human eosinophils and it was associated with increased expression of TGF-?1 and Smad3 phosphorylation in the bronchial epithelial cells. Treatment with anti-TGF-?1 antibody blocked EMT in bronchial epithelial cells. Eosinophils induced EMT in bronchial epithelial cells, suggesting their contribution to the pathogenesis of airway remodelling.
| S-EPMC3660301 | biostudies-literature