Amino acid metabolism of fibroblasts involved in the occurrence and development of pulmonary fibrosis / 药学学报

ABSTRACT

Pulmonary fibrosis is a common pathological change in many chronic lung diseases, and its pathogenesis and characteristics are mainly caused by repeated lung alveolar injury leading to abnormal activation of fibroblasts and the accumulation of large amounts of extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition. Fibroblasts are not only responsible for constituting the interstitial structure of the lung but are also involved in the post-injury repairment in healthy lung tissue. In contrast, fibroblasts show a typical pro-fibrotic metabolic phenotype after differentiation into myofibroblasts during the development of pulmonary fibrosis. To synthesis large amount of collagen, the myofibroblasts have a strong metabolism characteristic of serine/glycine, glutamine, proline, and arginine. At the same time, the myofibroblast get the ability to resist cell apoptosis. As an important cell type for collagen degradation, fibroblasts reuse the amino acids of collagen to maintain cell metabolism. However, the myofibroblasts cannot degrade the ECM due to the suppression of autophagy activity, thus accelerating the progression of pulmonary fibrosis. This review attempts to summarize how amino acid metabolism of fibroblasts influence the pulmonary fibrosis.