Project description:Samples surgically extracted from CTEPH pulmonary arteries were compared to post-transplant pulmonary arteries from IPAH and failed donor pulmonary arteries from controls The goal was to determine if altered gene expression in CTEPH associated with development of chronic thrombi
Project description:Pulmonary hypertension worsens outcome in left heart disease. Stiffening of the pulmonary artery may drive this pathology by increasing right ventricular dysfunction and lung vascular remodeling. We showed that pulmonary arteries from patients with left heart disease are characterized by increased stiffness that correlates with impaired pulmonary hemodynamics. Pulmonary arteries in left heart disease patients with pulmonary hypertension were characterized by degradation of elastic fibers paralleled by an accumulation of fibrillar collagens. We utilized RNA sequencing to identify differentially expressed genes regulating extracellular matrix remodeling in pulmonary arteries of left heart disease patients with or without pulmonary hypertension, in comparison to healthy-heart donor controls. As such we identified that transcriptional deregulation of extracellular matrix constituents and their regulators precedes clinical pulmonary hypertension, and therefore might be a pathomechanism that drives pulmonary arterial remodeling and stiffening in left heart disease.
Project description:In dogs with degenerative mitral valve disease (DMVD), pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a common complication characterized by abnormally elevated pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP). Pulmonary arterial remodeling is the histopathological changes of pulmonary artery that has been recognized in PH. The underlying mechanisms that cause this arterial remodeling are poorly understood. This study aimed to perform shotgun proteomics to investigate changes in protein expression in pulmonary arteries and lung tissues of DMVD dogs with PH compared to normal control dogs and DMVD dogs without PH.
Project description:Distal pulmonary arteries contain multipe cell types and each cell type contains multiple functional state. We used single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to analyze the diversity of cell types in control animals and the changes of cell types and gene expression between cells from healthy and PH vessels.
Project description:Dysfunction of pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (PAECs) is associated with the development and progression of vascular pathology. However, it remains unknown how pulmonary hypertension (PH) affects cellular composition and transcriptomic profile of pulmonary endothelium. Here, we have undertaken a single-cell, compartment specific approach to characterise alterations in PAECs associated with two different types of PH, i.e., pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and pulmonary hypertension associated with pulmonary fibrosis (PHPF). Our unbiased analysis showed that endothelium of medium / small caliber pulmonary arteries is composed of three subsets of endothelial cells (ECs). The analysis of healthy and PH endothelium revealed that the three populations are persistently represented in remodelled arteries. Additionally, an exploratory analysis of human aorta (AO) and coronary arteries (CA) endothelium revealed that, although similar gene expression patterns were noticeable, PAECs subpopulations proportions differs significantly from pulmonary arteries (PA) endothelium. To address whether EC heterogeneity is a prime feature of human endothelium, we also performed a similar analysis in a murine model of hypoxia, revealing that similar EC populations were evident in this animal model. Comparative analysis of EC subpopulations in healthy and PH EC identified a common genetic deregulation accompanying vascular remodelling. Even though murine EC displayed some similarities with human EC subpopulations, the intense re-programming associated with hypoxia associated vascular remodelling displayed significant differences compared to the human disease. Finally, in depth comparative analysis of PAH and PHPF EC highlighted the development of disease-specific transcriptomic alterations in the three populations. Therefore, characterisation of transcriptomic differences in the endothelial bed of PAH and PHPF patients can facilitate identification of novel, disease-specific therapeutic targets.
Project description:Genome-wide gene expression profiling was performed in pulmonary arteries from 32 mice. Four mice in 8 different groups; Normoxic: wild type female/male, Sert female/male; Hypoxic: wild type female/male and Sert female/male.
Project description:Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a fatal disease characterized by a proliferative endothelial cell phenotype, inflammation and pulmonary vascular remodeling. BMPR2 loss-of-function has been linked to pathologic plexiform lesions with obliteration of distal pulmonary arteries distal pulmonary arteries BMPR2 silencing inprimary human pulmonary artery ECs (HPAECs) recapitulate important aspects of cellular dysfunction and deregulated signaling associated with PAH. Primary HPAECs were transfected with gene-specific siRNA pools targeting BMPR2 or control siRNA followed PMA or control stimulation.
Project description:Here we investigated the protein composition of the main pulmonary artery (MPA), distal pulmonary arteries (DPA) distal whole lung (DWL) of early stage hypoxia (using a neonatal bovine calf model) and late stage hypoxia (using adult steers with hypoxia-induced PH) using high resolution mass spectrometry. Compartment-resolved analysis allowed for quantitative measurements of proteins from cellular, soluble ECM and insoluble ECM fractions
Project description:Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a fatal disease characterized by a proliferative endothelial cell phenotype, inflammation and pulmonary vascular remodeling. BMPR2 loss-of-function has been linked to pathologic plexiform lesions with obliteration of distal pulmonary arteries distal pulmonary arteries BMPR2 silencing inprimary human pulmonary artery ECs (HPAECs) recapitulate important aspects of cellular dysfunction and deregulated signaling associated with PAH.