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Adenosine A2A Receptor Blockade or Deletion Diminishes Fibrocyte Accumulation in the Skin in a Murine Model of Scleroderma, Bleomycin-induced Fibrosis

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Abstract

Peripheral blood fibrocytes are a newly identified circulating leukocyte subpopulation that migrates into injured tissue where it may display fibroblast-like properties and participate in wound healing and fibrosis of skin and other organs. Previous studies in our lab demonstrated that A2A receptor-deficient and A2A antagonist-treated mice were protected from developing bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis, thus the aim of this study was to determine whether the adenosine A2A receptor regulates recruitment of fibrocytes to the dermis in this bleomycin-induced model of dermal fibrosis. Sections of skin from normal mice and bleomycin-treated wild type, A2A knockout and A2A antagonist-treated mice were stained for Procollagen α2 Type I and CD34 and the double stained cells, fibrocytes, were counted in the tissue sections. There were more fibrocytes in the dermis of bleomycin-treated mice than normal mice and the increase was abrogated by deletion or blockade of adenosine A2A receptors. Because fibrocytes play a central role in tissue fibrosis these results suggest that diminished adenosine A2A receptor-mediated recruitment of fibrocytes into tissue may play a role in the pathogenesis of fibrosing diseases of the skin. Moreover, these results provide further evidence that adenosine A2A receptors may represent a new target for the treatment of such fibrosing diseases as scleroderma or nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy.

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Abbreviations

A2AKO:

adenosine A2A receptor knockout

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AR41911, AA13336, GM56268), the Scleroderma Foundation, King Pharmaceuticals, the General Clinical Research Center (M01RR00096) and by the Kaplan Cancer Center of New York University School of Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Divisions of Clinical Pharmacology and Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Ave., New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Majid Katebi, Patricia Fernandez, Edwin S. L. Chan & Bruce N. Cronstein

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  1. Majid Katebi
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  2. Patricia Fernandez
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  3. Edwin S. L. Chan
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Correspondence to Bruce N. Cronstein.

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Katebi, M., Fernandez, P., Chan, E.S.L. et al. Adenosine A2A Receptor Blockade or Deletion Diminishes Fibrocyte Accumulation in the Skin in a Murine Model of Scleroderma, Bleomycin-induced Fibrosis. Inflammation 31, 299–303 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10753-008-9078-y

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