Sex-dependent acrolein sensitivity in mice is associated with differential lung cell, protein, and transcript changes

Acrolein is a reactive inhalation hazard. Acrolein's initial interaction, which in itself can be function-altering, is followed by time-dependent cascade of complex cellular and pulmonary responses that dictate the severity of the injury. To investigate the pathophysiological progression of sex-dependent acrolein-induced acute lung injury, C57BL/6J mice were exposed for 30 min to sublethal, but toxic, and lethal acrolein. Male mice were more sensitive than female mice. Acrolein of 50 ppm was sublethal to female but lethal to male mice, and 75 ppm was lethal to female mice. Lethal and sublethal acrolein exposure decreased bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) total cell number at 3 h after exposure. The cell number decrease was followed by progressive total cell and neutrophil number and protein increases. The BAL total cell number in female mice exposed to a sublethal, but not lethal dose, returned to control levels at 16 h. In contrast, BAL protein content and neutrophil number were higher in mice exposed to lethal compared to sublethal acrolein. RNASeq pathway analysis identified greater increased lung neutrophil, glutathione metabolism, oxidative stress responses, and CCL7 (aka MCP-3), CXCL10 (aka IP-10), and IL6 transcripts in males than females, whereas IL10 increased more in female than male mice. Thus, the IL6:IL10 ratio, an indicator of disease severity, was greater in males than females. Further, H3.3 histone B (H3F3B) and pro-platelet basic protein (PPBP aka CXCL7), transcripts increased in acrolein exposed mouse BAL and plasma at 3 h, while H3F3B protein that is associated with neutrophil extracellular traps formation increased at 12 h. These results suggest that H3F3B and PPBP transcripts increase may contribute to extracellular H3F3B and PPBP proteins increase.