Interleukin-19 Aggravates Pulmonary Fibrosis via Activating Fibroblast through TGF-β/Smad Pathway
Yu Wang1, Sibo Sun1, Kai Wang1
1Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geriatrics, Department of Geriatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
Background:
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal interstitial pneumonia disease with no cure. Communication between injured cells is triggered and maintained by a complicated network of cytokines and their receptors. IL-19 is supported by increasing evidences for a deleterious role in respiratory diseases. However, its potential role in lung fibrosis has never been explored.
Methods:
Bioinformatic, immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis were used to assess the expression of IL-19 in human and mouse fibrosis lung tissues. CCK-8, transwell and flow cytometry assay were utilized to analyze the effect of IL-19 on biological behaviors of lung fibroblasts. Histopathology was used to elucidate profibrotic effect of IL-19 in vivo.
Results:
IL-19 was upregulated in fibrosis lung tissues. IL-19 promoted lung fibroblasts proliferation and invasion, inhibited cell apoptosis, and induced differentiation of fibroblasts to the myofibroblast phenotype, which could be revised by LY2109761, a TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway inhibitor. Furthermore, we found that IL-19 aggravated lung fibrosis in murine bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis.
Conclusions:
Our results imply the profibrotic role for IL-19 through direct effects on lung fibroblasts and the potential of targeting IL-19 for therapeutic intervention in pulmonary fibrosis.
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