Yes-associated Protein Mediates Acute Lung Injury in Adult but not Juvenile Mice
Authors: Hough Rebecca F , Dubuisson Alexandra M , Emin Memet T 
Published: May 2024

Objective: Adults with The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) have worse outcomes than children with Pediatric ARDS. This finding can be reproduced in animal models, suggesting a difference in Acute Lung Injury (ALI) mechanisms. Understanding these mechanistic differences could inform age-specific treatment. Hypothesis: Since Yes-associated protein (YAP) is important for lung development and reactive to mechanical stretch, we hypothesized that YAP is important for ALI mechanisms. Methods: To induce ALI, we intranasally instilled mice with Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain K (2.5 x 105 colony forming units (c.f.u.)) in juvenile (3-week-old) and adult (10-week-old) C57BL/6J mice. 24 h later, we collected bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and measured protein, cell count, and c.f.u. To knockdown YAP expression, we injected siRNA 24 h before P. aeruginosa instillation. We removed the lungs and enriched for CD45+ and CD41+ fraction, and CD31+ fraction using Dynabeads sheep anti-rat IgG (Invitrogen). In separate experiments, lungs were separated into nuclear and cytosolic fractions for immunoblot analysis. For immunoprecipitation, the cytosolic fraction was added to beads coated with anti-YAP antibody (rabbit monoclonal). We washed the beads and eluted bound proteins, which were identified by label-free mass spectrometry. Data and results: While both juvenile and adult mice had significantly increased BAL cell counts and protein 24 h after P. aeruginosa instillation, adult mice had significantly greater cell counts and protein than juveniles. BAL c.f.u. were similar in both groups, suggesting equal instillation of P. aeruginosa. P. aeruginosa instillation increased whole lung YAP expression in both cytosolic and nuclear fractions in adult mice by >3-fold, but YAP expression was not increased in P. aeruginosa-treated juvenile mice. YAP protein increases occurred in CD31+ fraction (endothelial cells), but no YAP was quantified in CD45+/CD41+ fraction (leukocytes and platelets). Vascular knockdown of YAP expression by ~75% in adult mice blocked P. aeruginosa-induced BAL cell count increases. Proteomics analysis revealed 62 proteins that had significantly altered YAP binding upon P. aeruginosa treatment (47 with increased YAP binding). The complement factors H and I had a log2-fold-change for YAP binding of 4.56 and 2.26, respectively, upon P. aeruginosa treatment. Conclusions: Adult mice exhibited YAP-dependent Acute Lung Injury; juveniles did not. YAP-dependent mechanisms of injury may be secondary to YAP binding to the complement inhibitory proteins H and I. More work is needed to establish the cell-specificity of YAP-complement factor binding and to determine the location of complement signaling. HL148403, Parker B Francis, and Columbia University Department of Pediatrics Children’s Health Innovation Nucleation Fund to RFH; Ernest E Just Summer Scholarship to AMD. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.