Mouse lung organoid responses to reduced, increased, and cyclic stretch

Most lung development occurs in the context of cyclic stretch. Alteration of the mechanical microenvironment is a common feature of many pulmonary diseases, with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) and fetal tracheal occlusion (FETO, a therapy for CDH) being extreme examples with changes in lung structure, cell differentiation, and function. To address limitations in cell culture and in vivo mechanotransductive models, we developed two mouse lung organoid (mLO) mechanotransductive models using postnatal day 5 (PND5) mouse lung CD326-positive cells and fibroblasts subjected to increased, decreased, and cyclic strain. In the first model, mLOs were exposed to forskolin (FSK) and/or disrupted (DIS) and evaluated at 20 h. mLO cross-sectional area changed by +59%, +24%, and -68% in FSK, control, and DIS mLOs, respectively. FSK-treated organoids had twice as many proliferating cells as other organoids. In the second model, 20 h of 10.25% biaxial cyclic strain increased the mRNAs of lung mesenchymal cell lineages compared with static stretch and no stretch. Cyclic stretch increased TGF-β and integrin-mediated signaling, with upstream analysis indicating roles for histone deacetylases, microRNAs, and long noncoding RNAs. Cyclic stretch mLOs increased αSMA-positive and αSMA-PDGFRα-double-positive cells compared with no stretch and static stretch mLOs. In this PND5 mLO mechanotransductive model, cell proliferation is increased by static stretch, and cyclic stretch induces mesenchymal gene expression changes important in postnatal lung development.