Background: Hypoxia can induce lung injury such as pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary edema. And in the rat model of hypoxia-induced lung injury, the expression of Farnesyl diphosphate farnesyl transferase 1 (Fdft 1) was highly expressed and the steroid biosynthesis pathway was activated. However, the role of Fdft 1 and steroid biosynthesis pathway in hypoxia-induced lung injury remains unclear.
Objective: The study aimed to further investigate the relationship between Fdft1 and steroid biosynthesis pathway with hypoxia-induced lung injury.
Methods: A rat model of lung injury was constructed by hypobaric chamber with hypoxic stress, the adenovirus interference vector was used to silence the expression of Fdft 1, and the exogenous steroid biosynthesis metabolite Vitamin D3 (VD3) was used to treat acute hypoxia-induced lung injury in rats.
Results: Sh-Fdft 1 and exogenous VD3 significantly inhibited the expression of Fdft 1 and the activation of the steroid pathway in hypoxia-induced lung injury rats, which showed a synergistic effect on the steroid activation pathway. In addition, sh-Fdft 1 promoted the increase of pulmonary artery pressure and lung water content, the decrease of oxygen partial pressure and oxygen saturation, and leaded to the increase of lung cell apoptosis and the aggravation of mitochondrial damage in hypoxia-stressed rats. And VD3 could significantly improve the lung injury induced by hypoxia and sh-Fdft 1 in rats.
Conclusions: Fdft 1 gene silencing can promote hypoxic-induced lung injury, and exogenous supplement of VD3 has an antagonistic effect on lung injury induced by Fdft 1 gene silencing and hypoxic in rats, suggesting that VD3 has a preventive and protective effect on the occurrence and development of hypoxia-induced lung injury.
Keywords: Fdft 1; Hypoxia stress; Lung injury; Pulmonary arterial hypertension; VD3.
© 2022. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to The Genetics Society of Korea.