Seok Byeong Geun, Lee Sangguk, Jin Su Hyeon, Lee Seunghee, Kwon Hyuk Nam, Chung Su Wol
Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, 44610, South Korea.
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, 94305, USA.
Free Radic Biol Med. 2025 Oct;238:293-302. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2025.06.045. Epub 2025 Jun 23.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic and incurable lung disease characterized by progressive destruction and scarring of lung tissue. A hallmark of Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is the accumulation of extracellular matrix produced by differentiated myofibroblasts. Recent studies have highlighted the role of reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial dysfunction in myofibroblast differentiation and disease progression. MitoNEET, also known as CDGSH iron-sulfur (Fe-S) domain-containing protein 1 (CISD1), is an outer mitochondrial membrane protein that contains iron-sulfur clusters and regulates mitochondrial function by controlling iron homeostasis and reactive oxygen species generation. However, the role of mitoNEET in redox signaling during fibrosis remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of mitoNEET in TGF-β-induced myofibroblast differentiation. We found that TGF-β treatment increased mitoNEET mRNA and protein levels in lung fibroblasts. Notably, pharmacological inhibition or short hairpin RNA-mediated knockdown of mitoNEET effectively attenuated TGF-β-induced myofibroblast differentiation, which was accompanied by a reduction in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species levels. Our findings indicate that mitoNEET regulates myofibroblast differentiation through redox-mediated mechanisms, highlighting its role as a redox regulator in fibrosis progression. Targeting mitoNEET to restore redox balance may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
特发性肺纤维化是一种慢性且无法治愈的肺部疾病,其特征是肺组织进行性破坏和瘢痕形成。特发性肺纤维化的一个标志是分化的肌成纤维细胞产生的细胞外基质的积累。最近的研究强调了活性氧和线粒体功能障碍在肌成纤维细胞分化和疾病进展中的作用。线粒体网膜蛋白(MitoNEET),也称为含CDGSH铁硫(Fe-S)结构域蛋白1(CISD1),是一种线粒体外膜蛋白,含有铁硫簇,并通过控制铁稳态和活性氧生成来调节线粒体功能。然而,线粒体网膜蛋白在纤维化过程中的氧化还原信号传导中的作用仍不清楚。在本研究中,我们研究了线粒体网膜蛋白在转化生长因子-β(TGF-β)诱导的肌成纤维细胞分化中的作用。我们发现,TGF-β处理可增加肺成纤维细胞中线粒体网膜蛋白的mRNA和蛋白水平。值得注意的是,线粒体网膜蛋白的药理学抑制或短发夹RNA介导的敲低有效地减弱了TGF-β诱导的肌成纤维细胞分化,同时线粒体活性氧水平降低。我们的研究结果表明,线粒体网膜蛋白通过氧化还原介导的机制调节肌成纤维细胞分化,突出了其在纤维化进展中作为氧化还原调节剂的作用。靶向线粒体网膜蛋白以恢复氧化还原平衡可能为特发性肺纤维化提供一种新的治疗策略。