Background Immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy is a systemic immune complex–mediated disease primarily affecting the kidneys, yet pulmonary involvement remains poorly characterized. This study investigated pulmonary structural alterations, IgA deposition, immune cell distribution, and the impact of chronic environmental immune stimulation. Methods: High-IgA (HIGA) mice and BALB/c controls were examined under baseline conditions and following chronic particulate matter (PM) exposure. Histopathology, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, and lectin-based assays were used to assess pulmonary IgA deposition, lymphoid cell aggregation, and immune activation. Results: Compared with BALB/c controls, HIGA mice exhibited pulmonary venular remodeling characterized by thickening of the venular tunica media and IgA deposition within the smooth muscle layer. Under baseline conditions, lymphoid cell aggregation in HIGA mice was predominantly localized to peribronchial regions, whereas IgA deposition and C3a deposition were confined to pulmonary venules with minimal spatial overlap. Following PM exposure, HIGA mice developed additional perivenular lymphoid cell aggregation that spatially corresponded with IgA deposition, whereas BALB/c mice showed predominantly peribronchial aggregation. PM exposure was associated with increased pulmonary Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) expression in both strains. In HIGA mice, TLR9-positive immune cells and interleukin-6 (IL6) expression were enriched in perivenular lymphoid cell aggregates. Conclusions: Pulmonary IgA deposition in HIGA mice is associated with vascular remodeling and compartment-specific immune cell distribution, particularly under environmental stimulation. These findings support an association between IgA deposition and localized immune activation in the lung. However, the causal roles of TLR9 and IL6 in this process remain to be determined.
Background Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is one of the most common complications in coronavirus disease 2019 patients suffering from acute lung injury (ALI). In ARDS, marked distortion of pulmonary architecture has been reported. The pulmonary lesions in ARDS include hemodynamic derangements (such as alveolar edema and hemorrhage), vascular and bronchiolar damage, interstitial inflammatory cellular aggregations, and eventually fibrosis. Bleomycin induces ARDS-representative pulmonary damage in mice and rats; therefore, we used bleomycin model mice in our study. Recently, Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) was implicated in the development of ARDS and ALI.
Methods In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of a TLR9 blocker (ODN2088) on bleomycin-induced pulmonary damage. We measured the apoptosis rate, inflammatory reaction, and fibroplasia in bleomycin- and bleomycin + ODN2088-treated mice.
Results Our results showed a significant amelioration in bleomycin-induced damage to pulmonary architecture following ODN2088 treatment. A marked decrease in pulmonary epithelial and endothelial apoptosis rate as measured by cleaved caspase-3 expression, inflammatory reaction as indicated by tumor necrosis factor α expression, and pulmonary fibrosis as demonstrated by Van Gieson staining and α-smooth muscle actin immunohistochemistry were observed following ODN2088 treatment.
Conclusions All these findings indicate that blocking downstream TLR9 signaling could be beneficial in prevention or mitigation of ARDS through hemodynamic derangements, inflammation, apoptosis, and fibrosis.
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