State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Department of Pathophysiology, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China; Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Center of Respiratory Medicine, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China; National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, Beijing, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2020 Oct 1;202:110834. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.110834. Epub 2020 Jul 1.
Silicosis is caused by massive inhalation of silica-based particles, which leads to pulmonary inflammation, pulmonary fibrosis and lung dysfunction. Currently, the pathophysiological process of silicosis has not been well studied. Here, we defined the progression of silicosis as four stages by unsupervised clustering analysis: normal stage, inflammatory stage, progressive stage and fibrotic stage. Specifically, in normal stage, the lung function was normal, and no inflammation or fibrosis was detected in the lung tissue. Inflammatory stage showed a remarkable pulmonary inflammation but mild fibrosis and lung dysfunction. In progressive stage, significant lung dysfunction was observed, while pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis continued to deteriorate. Fibrotic stage revealed the most severe pulmonary fibrosis and lung dysfunction but no significant deterioration in inflammation. Since the common features were founded in both silicosis patients and rodents, we speculated that the pathophysiological processes of silicosis in patients might be similar to the rodents. Collectively, our new classification identified the process of silicosis, clarified the pathophysiological features of each stage, and provided some new insights for the progression of the disease.
硅肺是由大量吸入硅基颗粒引起的，导致肺部炎症、肺纤维化和肺功能障碍。目前，硅肺的病理生理过程尚未得到很好的研究。在这里，我们通过无监督聚类分析将硅肺的进展定义为四个阶段：正常阶段、炎症阶段、进展阶段和纤维化阶段。具体来说，在正常阶段，肺功能正常，肺组织中未检测到炎症或纤维化。炎症阶段显示出明显的肺部炎症，但纤维化和肺功能障碍较轻。在进展阶段，观察到明显的肺功能障碍，而肺部炎症和纤维化继续恶化。纤维化阶段显示出最严重的肺纤维化和肺功能障碍，但炎症没有明显恶化。由于在硅肺患者和啮齿动物中都发现了共同特征，我们推测患者硅肺的病理生理过程可能与啮齿动物相似。总的来说，我们的新分类方法确定了硅肺的发生过程，阐明了每个阶段的病理生理特征，并为疾病的进展提供了一些新的见解。
