IJMS, Vol. 21, Pages 1371: Deconvolution of RNA-Seq Analysis of Hyperbaric Oxygen-Treated Mice Lungs Reveals Mesenchymal Cell Subtype Changes (International Journal of Molecular Sciences)

Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) is widely applied to treat several hypoxia-related diseases.Previous studies have focused on the immediate effect of HBO-exposure induced oxidative stresson the lungs, but knowledge regarding the chronic effects from repetitive HBO exposure is limited,especially at the gene expression level. We found that repetitive HBO exposure did not alter themorphology of murine lungs. However, by deconvolution of RNA-seq from those mice lungs usingCIBERSORTx and the expression profile matrices of 8 mesenchymal cell subtypes obtained frombleomycin-treated mouse lungs, we identify several mesenchymal cell subtype changes. Theseinclude increases in Col13a1 matrix fibroblasts, mesenchymal progenitors and mesothelial cellpopulations and decreases in lipofibroblasts, endothelial and Pdgfrb high cell populations. Our datasuggest that repetitive HBO exposure may affect biological processes in the lungs such as responseto wounding, extracellular matrix, vasculature development and immune response.