TNF-α and RPLP0 drive the apoptosis of endothelial cells and increase susceptibility to high-altitude pulmonary edema

作者：Yiling Ge, Peijie Li, Ying-Rui Bu, Bin Zhang, Jin Xu, Siyuan He, Qing-Lin Cao, Yungang Bai, Jin Ma, Lin Zhang, Jie Zhou, Man‐Jiang Xie · 发表于：APOPTOSIS · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1007/s10495-024-02005-9 · 被引用次数：10 · 研究领域：High Altitude and Hypoxia、Travel-related health issues、Climate Change and Health Impacts

High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is a fatal threat for sojourners who ascend rapidly without sufficient acclimatization. Acclimatized sojourners and adapted natives are both insensitive to HAPE but have different physiological traits and molecular bases. In this study, based on GSE52209, the gene expression profiles of HAPE patients were compared with those of acclimatized sojourners and adapted natives, with the common and divergent differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and their hub genes identified, respectively. Bioinformatic methodologies for functional enrichment analysis, immune infiltration, diagnostic model construction, competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) analysis and drug prediction were performed to detect potential biological functions and molecular mechanisms. Next, an array of in vivo experiments in a HAPE rat model and in vitro experiments in HUVECs were conducted to verify the results of the bioinformatic analysis. The enriched pathways of DEGs and immune landscapes for HAPE were significantly different between sojourners and natives, and the common DEGs were enriched mainly in the pathways of development and immunity. Nomograms revealed that the upregulation of TNF-α and downregulation of RPLP0 exhibited high diagnostic efficiency for HAPE in both sojourners and natives, which was further validated in the HAPE rat model. The addition of TNF-α and RPLP0 knockdown activated apoptosis signaling in endothelial cells (ECs) and enhanced endothelial permeability. ...