Article abstract


Nature Medicine 14, 45 - 54 (2008)
Published online: 9 December 2007 | doi:10.1038/nm1685

The lysophosphatidic acid receptor LPA1 links pulmonary fibrosis to lung injury by mediating fibroblast recruitment and vascular leak

Andrew M Tager1,2, Peter LaCamera1,2,9, Barry S Shea1,2,9, Gabriele S Campanella1, Moisés Selman3, Zhenwen Zhao4, Vasiliy Polosukhin5, John Wain1,6, Banu A Karimi-Shah1,2, Nancy D Kim1, William K Hart1, Annie Pardo7, Timothy S Blackwell5, Yan Xu4, Jerold Chun8 & Andrew D Luster1


Aberrant wound-healing responses to injury have been implicated in the development of pulmonary fibrosis, but the mediators directing these pathologic responses have yet to be fully identified. We show that lysophosphatidic acid levels increase in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid following lung injury in the bleomycin model of pulmonary fibrosis, and that mice lacking one of its receptors, LPA1, are markedly protected from fibrosis and mortality in this model. The absence of LPA1 led to reduced fibroblast recruitment and vascular leak, two responses that may be excessive when injury leads to fibrosis rather than to repair, whereas leukocyte recruitment was preserved during the first week after injury. In persons with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, lysophosphatidic acid levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were also increased, and inhibition of LPA1 markedly reduced fibroblast responses to the chemotactic activity of this fluid. LPA1 therefore represents a new therapeutic target for diseases in which aberrant responses to injury contribute to fibrosis, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Top
  1. Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, CNY149-8301, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129 USA.
  2. Pulmonary and Critical Care Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, CNY149-8301, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129 USA.
  3. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Mexico City, Mexico.
  4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202, USA.
  5. Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, USA.
  6. Division of Thoracic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.
  7. Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico.
  8. Department of Molecular Biology, Helen L. Dorris Institute for Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
  9. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Correspondence to: Andrew D Luster1 e-mail: aluster@mgh.harvard.edu



MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

From lung injury to fibrosis

Nature Medicine News and Views (01 Jan 2008)


Extra navigation

Subscribe to Nature Medicine

Subscribe

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

ADVERTISEMENT