Deconvolution of RNA-Seq Analysis of Hyperbaric Oxygen-Treated Mice Lungs Reveals Mesenchymal Cell Subtype Changes

Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) is widely applied to treat several hypoxia-related diseases. Previous studies have focused on the immediate effect of HBO-exposure induced oxidative stress on the lungs, but knowledge regarding the chronic effects from repetitive HBO exposure is limited, especially at the gene expression level. We found that repetitive HBO exposure did not alter the morphology of murine lungs. However, by deconvolution of RNA-seq from those mice lungs using CIBERSORTx and the expression profile matrices of 8 mesenchymal cell subtypes obtained from bleomycin-treated mouse lungs, we identify several mesenchymal cell subtype changes. These include increases in Col13a1 matrix fibroblasts, mesenchymal progenitors and mesothelial cell populations and decreases in lipofibroblasts, endothelial and Pdgfrb high cell populations. Our data suggest that repetitive HBO exposure may affect biological processes in the lungs such as response to wounding, extracellular matrix, vasculature development and immune response.