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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders : Autoimmune Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1408880

Immunological characteristics of Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid and Blood across Connective Tissue Disease-associated Interstitial Lung Diseases

Provisionally accepted
Aiko Hirano Aiko Hirano 1Aki Sakashita Aki Sakashita 1Wataru Fujii Wataru Fujii 1*Kevin Baßler Kevin Baßler 2Taisuke Tsuji Taisuke Tsuji 3Masatoshi Kadoya Masatoshi Kadoya 4Atsushi Omoto Atsushi Omoto 4Noriya Hiraoka Noriya Hiraoka 3Tatsuya Imabayashi Tatsuya Imabayashi 5Yoshiko Kaneko Yoshiko Kaneko 5Hideaki Sofue Hideaki Sofue 1Yosuke Maehara Yosuke Maehara 6Takahiro Seno Takahiro Seno 1Makoto Wada Makoto Wada 1Masataka Kohno Masataka Kohno 1Wataru Fukuda Wataru Fukuda 4Kei Yamada Kei Yamada 6Koichi Takayama Koichi Takayama 5Yutaka Kawahito Yutaka Kawahito 1
  • 1 Inflammation and Immunology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan
  • 2 Aimed Analytics GmbH, Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • 3 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Japanese Red Cross Kyoto Daiichi Hospital, Kyoto, Kyōto, Japan
  • 4 Center for Rheumatic Disease, Japanese Red Cross Kyoto Daiichi Hospital, Japan, Kyoto, Japan
  • 5 Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Kyōto, Japan
  • 6 Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Kyōto, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a serious complication of connective tissue diseases (CTDs). The heterogeneity of ILDs reflects differences in pathogenesis among diseases. This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of CTD-ILDs via a detailed analysis of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and blood immune cells. BALF and blood samples were collected from 39 Japanese patients with newly diagnosed ILD: five patients with Sjögren’s syndrome (SS), eight patients with dermatomyositis (DM), six patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), six patients with systemic sclerosis, four patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis, and 10 patients with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. We performed single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze the gene expression profiles in these patients’ immune cells. In patients with SS, B cells in the BALF were increased and genes associated with the innate and acquired immunity were enriched in both the BALF and blood. In contrast, patients with DM showed an upregulation of genes associated with viral infection in both the BALF and blood. In patients with RA, neutrophils in the BALF tended to increase, and their gene expression patterns changed towards inflammation. These disease-specific characteristics may help us understand the pathogenesis for each disease and discover potential biomarkers.

    Keywords: single-cell RNA sequencing, Genetics, Interstitial Lung Disease, Connective tissue disease, systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease

    Received: 28 Mar 2024; Accepted: 30 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hirano, Sakashita, Fujii, Baßler, Tsuji, Kadoya, Omoto, Hiraoka, Imabayashi, Kaneko, Sofue, Maehara, Seno, Wada, Kohno, Fukuda, Yamada, Takayama and Kawahito. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wataru Fujii, Inflammation and Immunology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.