IL-17A Contributes to Lung Fibrosis in a Model of Chronic Pulmonary Graft-versus-host Disease.
BACKGROUND: Chronic pulmonary graft-versus-host disease (cpGVHD) after hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) manifests as progressive airway and parenchymal lung fibrosis. On the basis of our prior data, mice that undergo allogeneic HCT with Tbet-knockout donors (AlloTbet) have increased lung Th17 cells and IL-17A and develop fibrosis resembling human cpGVHD. The role of IL-17A in posttransplant pulmonary fibrosis remains incompletely understood. We hypothesized that IL-17A is necessary for development of murine cpGVHD in this model. METHODS: AlloTbet mice received weekly intraperitoneal anti-IL-17A or IgG (200 μg/mouse) starting 2 weeks post-HCT and were sacrificed after week 5. Histologic airway and parenchymal fibrosis were semiquantitatively graded in a blinded fashion. Lung cells and proteins were measured by flow cytometry, ELISA, and multicytokine assays. RESULTS: Anti-IL-17A modestly decreased airway and parenchymal lung fibrosis, along with a striking reduction in pulmonary neutrophilia, IL-6, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, CXCL1, and CXCL5 in AlloTbet mice. Additionally, anti-IL-17A decreased CCL2, inflammatory monocytes and macrophages, and Th17 cells. CONCLUSIONS: In the setting of murine AlloHCT with Tbet donors, IL-17A blockade decreases fibrotic features of cpGVHD. This may be mediated by the observed reduction in neutrophils or specific lung monocyte and macrophage populations or alternatively via a direct effect on fibroblasts. Collectively, our results further suggest that anti-IL-17A strategies could prove useful in preventing alloimmune-driven fibrotic lung diseases.
Duke Scholars
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- Surgery
- Pulmonary Fibrosis
- Monocytes
- Mice, Inbred C57BL
- Mice
- Male
- Macrophages
- Lung
- Interleukin-6
- Interleukin-17
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Location
Related Subject Headings
- Surgery
- Pulmonary Fibrosis
- Monocytes
- Mice, Inbred C57BL
- Mice
- Male
- Macrophages
- Lung
- Interleukin-6
- Interleukin-17