HIF and ER stress are involved in TGFβ1-mediated wound closure of alveolar epithelial cells.

Purpose: Alveolar epithelium dysfunction is associated with a very large spectrum of disease and an abnormal repair capacity of the airway epithelium has been proposed to explain the pathogenesis of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Following epithelium insult, the damaged cells will activate pathways implicated in the repair process, including proliferation and acquisition of migratory capacities to cover the denuded basement membrane. Induction of Endoplasmic Reticulum stress may be implicated in this process. Interestingly, ER stress excessive activation has been proposed as a central event associated with aberrant repair process and cellular dysfunction observed in IPF. Methods: We study by wound healing assay the molecular targets associated with Alveolar Epithelial Cells (AEC) repair. Results: We demonstrate that the wound recovery of AEC is associated with TGF-β1 signaling and increased transcriptional activity of ER stress and HIF-dependent genes. We further demonstrated that inhibition of TGF-β1 signaling, CHOP expression or HIF-1 expression, limits AECs wound closure. Conclusion: the use of pharmacological drugs targeting the ER/HIF-1 axis could be an attractive approach to limit AEC dysregulation in pathological condition, and confirmed a critical role of theses factor in response to alveolar injury.