Nature Communications (Jul 2019)

Mitofusins regulate lipid metabolism to mediate the development of lung fibrosis

  • Kuei-Pin Chung,
  • Chia-Lang Hsu,
  • Li-Chao Fan,
  • Ziling Huang,
  • Divya Bhatia,
  • Yi-Jung Chen,
  • Shu Hisata,
  • Soo Jung Cho,
  • Kiichi Nakahira,
  • Mitsuru Imamura,
  • Mary E. Choi,
  • Chong-Jen Yu,
  • Suzanne M. Cloonan,
  • Augustine M. K. Choi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11327-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 17

Abstract

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Mitochondria of alveolar type 2 epithelial cells (AEC2) in the lung have been suggested to play a role in the development of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Here the authors show that loss of mitofusin1 and mitofusin2 in murine AEC2 cells leads to the development of lung fibrosis through the regulation of surfactant lipids.