glycogen and Pulmonary-Fibrosis

Matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging has greatly improved our understanding of spatial biology, however a robust bioinformatic pipeline for data analysis is lacking. Here, we demonstrate the application of high-dimensionality reduction/spatial clustering and histopathological annotation of matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging datasets to assess tissue metabolic heterogeneity in human lung diseases. Using metabolic features identified from this pipeline, we hypothesize that metabolic channeling between glycogen and N-linked glycans is a critical metabolic process favoring pulmonary fibrosis progression. To test our hypothesis, we induced pulmonary fibrosis in two different mouse models with lysosomal glycogen utilization deficiency. Both mouse models displayed blunted N-linked glycan levels and nearly 90% reduction in endpoint fibrosis when compared to WT animals. Collectively, we provide conclusive evidence that lysosomal utilization of glycogen is required for pulmonary fibrosis progression. In summary, our study provides a roadmap to leverage spatial metabolomics to understand foundational biology in pulmonary diseases.

Topics: Animals; Glycogen; Humans; Metabolomics; Mice; Polysaccharides; Pulmonary Fibrosis; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization

Patients with pulmonary fibrosis often exhibit reduced lung function and diminished health-related quality of life. Studies have shown that paraquat-induced, extrapulmonary, acute lung injury affects the metabolic profile of glycogen content in different tissues. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the process of pulmonary fibrosis induced by continuous exposure to the toxic herbicide paraquat or by a local insult from bleomycin affects the glycogen content in tissues.. In the paraquat experiment, Wistar rats (n = 5 per group) received either saline (controls) or an intraperitoneal injection of a paraquat solution (7.0 mg/kg; experimental group) once a week for 4 weeks. In the bleomycin experiment, Balb/c mice (n = 5 per group) received either saline (controls) or 6.25 U/kg of bleomycin through intratracheal instillation in single dose (experimental group). Glycogen content in different tissues (mg/g tissue) was measured using the anthrone reagent. The lungs submitted to histopathological and quantitative analyses of fibrosis.. Paraquat-induced fibrosis led to lower glycogen content in the gastrocnemius muscle (2.7 ± 0.1 vs. 3.4 ± 0.1; 79 %) compared with the controls, whereas no changes in glycogen content were found in the diaphragm or heart. Bleomycin-induced fibrosis led to lower glycogen content in the diaphragm (0.43 ± 0.02 vs. 0.79 ± 0.09, 54 %), gastrocnemius muscle (0.62 ± 0.11 vs. 1.18 ± 0.06, 52 %), and heart (0.68 ± 0.11 vs. 1.39 ± 0.1, 49 %) compared with the controls (p < 0.05). Moreover, the area of fibrous connective tissue (μm(2)) in the lungs was significantly increased in paraquat-induced fibrosis (3,463 ± 377 vs. 565 ± 89) and bleomycin-induced fibrosis (3,707 ± 433.9 vs. 179 ± 51.28) compared with the controls.. The findings suggest that the effects of fibrogenesis in the lungs are not limited to local alterations but also lead to a reduction in glycogen content in the heart and other muscles. This reduction could partially explain the impaired muscle performance found in patients with pulmonary fibrosis.

Topics: Animals; Bleomycin; Diaphragm; Disease Models, Animal; Glycogen; Lung; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Muscle, Skeletal; Myocardium; Paraquat; Pulmonary Fibrosis; Rats; Rats, Wistar

Topics: Bronchiectasis; Bronchitis; Bronchitis, Chronic; Glycogen; Histocytochemistry; Humans; Lung Abscess; Mucous Membrane; Pathology; Pulmonary Atelectasis; Pulmonary Emphysema; Pulmonary Fibrosis; RNA