Project description:Comparison of severely emphysematous tissue removed at lung volume reduction surgery to that of normal or mildly emphysematous lung tissue resected from smokers with nodules suspicious for lung cancer. Data obtained from the 18 patients with severe emphysema and 12 patients with mild/no emphysema. Research may provide insights into the pathogenetic mechanisms involved in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Project description:Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) having higher blood eosinophil levels exhibit worse lung function and more severe emphysema, implying the potential role of eosinophils in emphysema development. However, the specific mechanism underlying eosinophil-mediated emphysema development is not fully elucidated. In this study, single-cell RNA sequencing was used to identify eosinophil subgroups in mouse models of asthma and emphysema and analyze their functions. Analysis of the accumulated eosinophils revealed differential transcriptomes between the mouse lungs of elastase-induced emphysema and ovalbumin-induced asthma., Eosinophil depletion alleviated elastase-induced emphysema. Notably, eosinophil-derived cathepsin L (CTSL) degraded the extracellular matrix (ECM), causing emphysema in the pulmonary tissue. Eosinophils were positively correlated with serum CTSL levels, which were increased in patients with emphysema than in those without emphysema. Collectively, these results suggest that CTSL expression in eosinophils plays an important role in ECM degradation and remodeling and is related to emphysema in patients with COPD. Therefore, eosinophil-derived CTSL may serve as a potential therapeutic target for patients with emphysema.
Project description:Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex pulmonary disorder primarily induced by cigarette smoking, and characterized by persistent airflow limitation. The mouse represents an important model for studying COPD pathologies such as lung emphysema. In this respect, a number of mechanistic studies have been performed, however the approaches were mostly focused on single gene analysis or characterization of cellular, inflammatory or histopathological changes without attempting a more comprehensive interpretation. In the present study we aimed at applying systems biology approach to identify genome-wide molecular mechanisms indicative of cigarette smoke (CS)-induced lung emphysema. The lung transcriptomes of five mouse models (C57BL/6, ApoE-/-, A/J, CD1, and Nrf2-/-), that are known to be susceptible to CS-induced emphysema development, were analyzed following prolonged (5-6 months) CS exposure. The investigation resulted in the confirmation of many existing mechanistic explanations underlying smoke-induced lung emphysema, including increased transcriptional activity of NF-?B, and increased levels of TNF-a, IFN-g, and IL-1b. More importantly, we predicted mechanisms without currently well-documented roles, including increased transcriptional activity of PU.1, STAT1, C/EBP, FOXM1, YY1 and N-cor, and increased IL-17 cytokine expression, and reduced protein expression of ITGB6 and CFTR. We also corroborated, by using targeted proteomic approaches, several predictions such as reduced expression of ITGB6 and increased expression of BRCA1, C/EBPs, PU.1, TNF-a, IL-1b or CSF2. We believe this study will provide more insights into better understanding of CS-induced molecular processes underlying emphysema development in mice that may eventually be relevant in humans.