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Role of GSDM family members in airway epithelial cells of lung diseases: a systematic and comprehensive transcriptomic analysis

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Abstract

Gasdermin (GSDM) family, the key executioners of pyroptosis, play crucial roles in anti-pathogen and anti-tumor immunities, although little is known about the expression of GSDM in lung diseases at single-cell resolution, especially in lung epithelial cells. We comprehensively investigated the transcriptomic profiles of GSDM members in various lung tissues from healthy subjects or patients with different lung diseases at single cell level, e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), or systemic sclerosis (SSC). The expression of GSDM members varied among pulmonary cell types (immune cells, structural cells, and especially epithelial cells) and even across lung diseases. Regarding disease-associated specificities, we found that GSDMC or GSDMD altered significantly in ciliated epithelia of COPD or LUAD, GSDMD in mucous, club, and basal cells of LUAD and GSDMC in mucous epithelia of para-tumor tissue, as compared with the corresponding epithelia of other diseases. The phenomic specificity of GSDM in lung cancer subtypes was noticed by comparing with 15 non-pulmonary cancers and para-cancer samples. GSDM family gene expression changes were also observed in different lung epithelial cell lines (e.g., HBE, A549, H1299, SPC-1, or H460) in responses to external challenges, including lipopolysaccharide (LPS), lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC), cigarette smoking extract (CSE), cholesterol, and AR2 inhibitor at various doses or durations. GSDMA is rarely expressed in those cell lines, while GSDMB and GSDMC are significantly upregulated in human lung epithelia. Our data indicated that the heterogeneity of GSDM member expression exists at different cells, pathologic conditions, challenges, probably dependent upon cell biological phenomes, functions, and behaviors, upon cellular responses to external changes, and the nature and severity of lung disease. Thus, the deep exploration of GSDM phenomes may provide new insights into understanding the single-cell roles in the tissue, regulatory roles of the GSDM family in the pathogenesis, and potential values of biomarker identification and development.

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Data availability

The data in the article are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

COPD :

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

IPF :

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

SSC :

Systemic sclerosis

LUAD :

Lung adenocarcinoma

GSDM :

Gasdermin

GSDMA :

Gasdermin A

GSDMB :

Gasdermin B

GSDMC :

Gasdermin C

GSDMD:

Gasdermin D

PJVK:

Pejvakin

Normal :

Normal lung tissue

LUAD :

Lung adenocarcinoma

LUAD-P :

Para-adenocarcinoma lung tissue

LUSC :

Lung squamous carcinoma

LUSC-P :

Para-squamous carcinoma lung tissue

GBM :

Glioblastoma multiforme

BLCA :

Bladder urothelial carcinoma

BRCA :

Breast invasive carcinoma

CHOL :

Cholangiocarcinoma

ESCA :

Esophageal carcinoma

KIRP :

Kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma

LIHC :

Liver hepatocellular carcinoma

PRAD :

Prostate adenocarcinoma

STAD :

Stomach adenocarcinoma

THCA :

Thyroid carcinoma

COAD :

Colon adenocarcinoma

AR2 :

Androgen receptor2

HBE :

Human bronchial epithelial cell

PCD :

Programmed cell death

LPS :

Lipopolysaccharide

LysoPC :

Lysophosphatidylcholine

CSE :

Cigarette smoking extract

LS :

Lung surfactants

PLCG1 :

Phospholipase C gamma 1

GPC :

G protein-coupled receptor (GPC)

TLR :

Toll-like receptor

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Funding

National Nature Science Foundation of China (81873409), “Cross key project of mathematics and medical health” of National Natural Science Foundation of China (12026608), and partly supported by Pazhou Lab.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Xiangdong Wang, Ajay Goel, Chengshui Chen, and Yiming Zeng contributed to the study conception and design. Xuanqi Liu, Linlin Zhang, Bijun Zhu, Yifei Liu, Liyang Li, Jiayun Hou, Mengjia Qian, and Nannan Zheng analyzed the data and finished the manuscript writing. All authors contributed to the writing and reviewing of the manuscript and approved the final manuscript for submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yiming Zeng, Chengshui Chen, Ajay Goel or Xiangdong Wang.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Highlights

1. Transcriptomic atlas of GSDM family members vary across diverse lung epithelial cells, lung diseases and external stimuli.

2. GSDM family members play crucial roles in pyroptosis, one of the programmed cell death in lung diseases.

3. GSDM family genes are potentially valuable as the biomarkers and therapeutic targets in lung diseases.

Linlin Zhang, Bijun Zhu, Yifei Liu, Jiayun Hou, Mengjia Qian, Nannan Zheng, and Yiming Zeng contributed to this work equally as the first author.

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Liu, X., Zhang, L., Zhu, B. et al. Role of GSDM family members in airway epithelial cells of lung diseases: a systematic and comprehensive transcriptomic analysis. Cell Biol Toxicol 39, 2743–2760 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10565-023-09799-5

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