We aimed to study the relationship between the expression of Hsp72 and anti-Hsp72 antibodies in the BAL fluid and serum Aw disease progression in patients with IPF.
This retrospective study analyzed the BAL transcriptome of three independent IPF cohorts: Freiburg (Germany), Siena (Italy), and Leuven (Belgium) including 212 patients.
The CCL8 concentrations in BAL fluid was significantly higher in 86 patients with IPF than those in 41 controls, and other interstitial lung diseases including non-specific interstitial pneumonia (n = 22), hypersensitivity pneumonitis (n = 20) and sarcoidosis (n = 19) (p < 0.005, respectively).
Our study highlights the importance of BAL microRNA signatures in IPF and identifies significant differences in miR-185/AKT and miR-29a/collagen axes in the BAL cells of IPF patients.
Furthermore, junctional sequence analysis showed the presence of conserved amino acid motifs (ETGRSG, LAxG, QGQ, GxQP, GRxG, VAR, PGT, GTI, GGT, TGR, LxLxQ, SGQ) in the TCR-CDR 3 region of BAL lymphocytes in patients with IPF, whereas only two amino acid motifs (VTTG, GGE) were found in the control.