Protective Effect and Mechanism of Autophagy in Endothelial Cell Injury Induced by Hyperoxia

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is a chronic lung disease in premature infants with alveolar simplification and pulmonary vascular development disorder as the main pathological feature and hyperoxia as the main etiology. Autophagy is a highly conserved cytological behavior of self-degrading cellular components and is accompanied by oxidative stress. Studies have reported that autophagy is regulated by FOXO1 posttranslational modification. However, whether autophagy can be involved in the regulation of endothelial cell injury induced by hyperoxia and its mechanism are still unclear.

We have activated and inhibited autophagy in human umbilical vein endothelial cells under hyperoxia and verified the role of autophagy in endothelial cell-related functions from both positive and negative aspects.

Our research showed that the expression level of autophagy-related proteins decreased, accompanied by decreased cell migration ability and tube formation ability and increased cell reactive oxygen species level and cell permeability under hyperoxia conditions. Using an autophagy agonist alleviated hyperoxia-induced changes and played a protective role. However, inhibition of autophagy aggravated the cell damage induced by hyperoxia. Moreover, the decrease in autophagy proteins was accompanied by the upregulation of FOXO1 phosphorylation and acetylation.

We concluded that autophagy was a protective mechanism against endothelial cell injury caused by hyperoxia. Autophagy might participate in this process by coregulating posttranslational modifications of FOXO1.

· Hyperoxia induces vascular endothelial cell injury.. · Autophagy may has a protective role under hyperoxia conditions.. · FOXO1 posttranslational modification may be involved in the regulation of autophagy..