Project description:Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive, and often fatal disorder. Using an in-silico data-driven approach, we identified a robust connection between the transcriptomic perturbations in IPF disease and those induced by saracatinib, a selective Src kinase inhibitor, originally developed for oncological indications.We investigated the anti-fibrotic efficacy of saracatinib in two in vivo modeles (bleomycin and recombinant adenovirus transforming growth factor-beta (Ad-TGF-β) murine models of pulmonary fibrosis).
Project description:Intratracheal application of bleomycin is known to induce inflammatory and fibrotic reactions in the lung within a short period of time and histological features include infiltration of inflammatory cells, collagen deposition and obliteration of alveolar spaces. Because some of these features are found in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis animal model is commonly used. However, exploratory treatments that were successfully used in this animal model and progressed to clinical trials lacked significant efficacy in humans. Here, the bleomycin-induced rat lung fibrosis model was studied using whole genome expression data that was collected at various time points and the relevance to human disease was evaluated through comparison with whole genome expression data from IPF patient-derived lung biopsies. The highest gene expression correlation between both species was observed in animals 7 days after bleomycin instillation. These gene expression signatures helped to identify a set of twelve novel disease-relevant translational gene markers that were able to separate IPF patients from controls. Furthermore, three Wnt/-catenin pathway-related genes that belong to this translational gene marker set showed, together with clinical diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) measurements, the potential to stratify IPF patients according to disease severity. Pirfenidone attenuated a subset of the translational gene markers in the bleomycin-induced fibrosis model, in particular those related to Wnt/-catenin-signaling. This novel translational gene marker panel offers improved possibilities to evaluate disease-modifying efficacy of novel therapeutic concepts in the bleomycin-induced rat lung fibrosis model and could be applied as a diagnostic and prognostic tool for IPF patient care. Comparison of bleomycin-treated and control rats after 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks and 8 weeks; 5 animals per group
Project description:Intratracheal application of bleomycin is known to induce inflammatory and fibrotic reactions in the lung within a short period of time and histological features include infiltration of inflammatory cells, collagen deposition and obliteration of alveolar spaces. Because some of these features are found in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis animal model is commonly used. However, exploratory treatments that were successfully used in this animal model and progressed to clinical trials lacked significant efficacy in humans. Here, the bleomycin-induced rat lung fibrosis model was studied using whole genome expression data that was collected at various time points and the relevance to human disease was evaluated through comparison with whole genome expression data from IPF patient-derived lung biopsies. The highest gene expression correlation between both species was observed in animals 7 days after bleomycin instillation. These gene expression signatures helped to identify a set of twelve novel disease-relevant translational gene markers that were able to separate IPF patients from controls. Furthermore, three Wnt/-catenin pathway-related genes that belong to this translational gene marker set showed, together with clinical diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) measurements, the potential to stratify IPF patients according to disease severity. Pirfenidone attenuated a subset of the translational gene markers in the bleomycin-induced fibrosis model, in particular those related to Wnt/-catenin-signaling. This novel translational gene marker panel offers improved possibilities to evaluate disease-modifying efficacy of novel therapeutic concepts in the bleomycin-induced rat lung fibrosis model and could be applied as a diagnostic and prognostic tool for IPF patient care.
Project description:Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressing chronic and fibrotic lung response with poor prognosis. To study the underlying molecular mechanisms of IPF, the rat bleomycin model is commonly used. Intratracheal application of bleomycin is known to induce inflammatory and fibrotic processes in the lung, e.g. infiltratin of inflammatory cells and collagen deposition. Recently, the PDE4B inhibitor BI 1015550 has been reported to prevent a decrease in lung function in patients with IPF. Here we examined the effect of PDE4 inhibitor BI 1015550 in the rat bleomycin model on transcriptional level by RNASeq.
Project description:The most preclinical used in vivo model to study lung fibrosis is the bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis model in 2-3-month-old mice. Although this model resembles key aspects of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), there are limitations in its predictability for the human disease. One of the main differences is the juvenile age of animals that are usually used in experiments, resembling humans of around 20 years. Because IPF patients are usually older than 60 years, aging appears to play an important role in the pathogenesis of lung fibrosis. We here compared young (3 months) and old (21 months) mice 21 days after intratracheal bleomycin instillation.
Project description:To address the gap between acute bleomycin-induced fibrosis in mice and the chronic nature of human IPF, we performed RNA-seq on lung tissue from single-dose and repetitive bleomycin models of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (BLEO-IPF). We find that the repetitive BLEO-IPF model recapitulates the key features of progressive fibrosis and senescence, offering a relevant pre-clinical platform for studying chronic IPF pathology and evaluating anti-fibrotic interventions.
Project description:In order to distinguish difference between control and IPF, primary cell lines were used to extract mRNA and the RNAseq was conducted. Some genes related to fibrosis were higher in IPF samples.
Project description:In the present study, we report a bleomycin-induced ferret PF model characterized by an irreversible decrease in pulmonary compliance and increase of opacification, accompanied by “honeycomb cyst-like” structures, “proximalization” of distal lung epithelium. Cellular and molecular analysis by single-nucleus RNA sequencing analysis revealed a significant shift in distal lung epithelium towards proximal epithelial phenotype. Importantly, a histopathological pattern of bronchiolization encompassing divergent atypical epithelial cells, and KRT17+/TP63+/KRT5low “basaloid-like” cells, were present in the distal fibrotic lung lesions. Trajectory analysis revealed AT2 cells transition through multiple cell-states in bleomycin injured ferret lungs, particularly AT2 to KRT8high/KRT7low/SOX4+ to eventual KRT8high/KRT7high/SFN+/TP63+/KRT5low “basaloid-like” cells. Further, immunofluorescence analyses demonstrated KRT7 and KRT8 populations reside in close proximity to the ACTA2 positive myofibroblasts in fibrotic foci thereby driving fibrogenic phenotype in bleomycin injured ferret lungs. Collectively, our results provide evidence that the bleomycin ferrets can reproduce pathophysiological, cellular, and molecular features of human IPF disease, suggesting that they may be a reliable model for understanding mechanisms of IPF pathogenesis and for testing therapeutic strategies for treatment of IPF.
Project description:Lung RNA-seq analysis was performed on BLEO-IPF mice at 7-42 days. Pulmonary transcriptome signatures of inflammation and fibrosis in BLEO-IPF mice were comparable to reported data in IPF patients.
Project description:Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a complex disease involving various cell types. Macrophages are essential in maintenance of physiological homeostasis, wound repair and fibrosis in the lung. Macrophages play a crucial role in repair and remodeling by altering their phenotype and secretory pattern in response to injury. The secretome of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-cm) attenuates injury and fibrosis in bleomycin injured rat lungs. In the current study, we evaluate the effect of iPSC-cm on interstitial macrophage gene expression and phenotype in bleomycin injured rat lungs in vivo. Â iPSC-cm was intratracheally instilled 7 days after bleomycin induced lung injury and assessed 7 days later and single cell isolation was performed. Macrophages were FACS sorted and microarray analysis was performed. We characterized changes in the rat lung interstitial macrophages using transcriptional profiling.