Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 162, Number 6, December 2000, 2259-2264

Fibroblast Contractility
Usual Interstitial Pneumonia and Nonspecific Interstitial Pneumonia

HIROYUKI MIKI, TADASHI MIO, SONOKO NAGAI, YUMA HOSHINO, TAISHI NAGAO, MASANORI KITAICHI, and TAKATERU IZUMI

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, and Department of Anatomic Pathology, Kyoto University Hospital, Kyoto, Japan

The aim of this study was to compare the function of lung fibroblasts obtained from surgically biopsied specimens of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis/usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP; n = 5), nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP; n = 5), and normal parts of surgically resected lungs (control; n = 5). The results showed that (1) fibroblasts obtained from UIP showed increased contractility compared with those obtained from NSIP or controls (UIP, 72.7 ± 6.21%; NSIP, 32.8 ± 5.46; controls, 28.5 ± 3.51, p < 0.01 in UIP versus NSIP or control); (2) this increase in contractility was consistent with enhanced F-actin content in fibroblasts; (3) conditioned media from UIP fibroblast cultures enhanced control fibroblast contractility, whereas those obtained from NSIP or controls did not; (4) the 180 and 25 kD products representing the contractility in conditioned media were identified as fibronectin (ED-A domain) and TGF-1 by immunoblots, respectively; (5) the UIP-conditioned media contained higher amounts of fibronectin or TGF-1 (fibronectin: UIP 289 ± 47.1 ng/ml, NSIP 121 ± 23.0, control 118 ± 16.0; TGF-1: UIP 798 ± 119 pg/ml, NSIP 246 ± 69.1, control 247 ± 53.6, p < 0.01 in UIP versus NSIP or control); () the contractility positively correlated with the amount of either fibronectin (r = 0.867, p < 0.001, n = 15) or TGF-1 (r = 0.939, p < 0.001, n = 15), respectively. Thus, UIP fibroblasts showed greater contractility than did NSIP fibroblasts and upregulated control fibroblasts.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. Kamio, X. Liu, H. Sugiura, S. Togo, T. Kobayashi, S. Kawasaki, X. Wang, L. Mao, Y. Ahn, C. Hogaboam, et al. Prostacyclin Analogs Inhibit Fibroblast Contraction of Collagen Gels through the cAMP-PKA Pathway Am. J. Respir. Cell Mol. Biol., July 1, 2007; 37(1): 113 - 120. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. R. Flaherty, T. V. Colby, W. D. Travis, G. B. Toews, J. Mumford, S. Murray, V. J. Thannickal, E. A. Kazerooni, B. H. Gross, J. P. Lynch III, et al. Fibroblastic Foci in Usual Interstitial Pneumonia: Idiopathic versus Collagen Vascular Disease Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., May 15, 2003; 167(10): 1410 - 1415. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Y. Inoue, T. E. King Jr., E. Barker, E. Daniloff, and L. S. Newman Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor and Its Receptors in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and Lymphangioleiomyomatosis Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., September 1, 2002; 166(5): 765 - 773. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. J. TOBIN Tuberculosis, Lung Infections, and Interstitial Lung Disease in AJRCCM 2000 Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., November 15, 2001; 164(10): 1774 - 1788. [Full Text] [PDF]