Abrogation of TGF-β1-induced fibroblast-myofibroblast differentiation by histone deacetylase inhibition

Abstract

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating disease with no known effective pharmacological therapy. The fibroblastic foci of IPF contain activated myofibroblasts that are the major synthesizers of type I collagen. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 promotes differentiation of fibroblasts into myofibroblasts in vitro and in vivo. In the current study, we investigated the molecular link between TGF-β1-mediated myofibroblast differentiation and histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity. Treatment of normal human lung fibroblasts (NHLFs) with the pan-HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) inhibited TGF-β1-mediated α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and α₁type I collagen mRNA induction. TSA also blocked the TGF-β1-driven contractile response in NHLFs. The inhibition of α-SMA expression by TSA was associated with reduced phosphorylation of Akt, and a pharmacological inhibitor of Akt blocked TGF-β1-mediated α-SMA induction in a dose-dependent manner. HDAC4 knockdown was effective in inhibiting TGF-β1-stimulated α-SMA expression as well as the phosphorylation of Akt. Moreover, the inhibitors of protein phosphatase 2A and 1 (PP2A and PP1) rescued the TGF-β1-mediated α-SMA induction from the inhibitory effect of TSA. Together, these data demonstrate that the differentiation of NHLFs to myofibroblasts is HDAC4 dependent and requires phosphorylation of Akt.