Infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae triggers progression of pulmonary fibrosis by pneumolysin

A two-hit model of adenoviral vector delivery of active transforming growth factor-β (TGFb) 1 to induce fibrosis in mice in conjunction with treatment of the mice with purified pneumolysin from Streptococcus pneumoniae was applied to characterize the role of this virulence factor on fibrosis perpetuation in mice The study was supported by a BMBF grant for the German Center for Lung Research, partner site BREATH (Biomedical Research in Endstage and Obstructive Lung Disease Hannover) Total RNA of murine lung type II alveolar epithelial cells of AdTGFb1 treated mice challenged with pneumolysin (PLY, n=4) and its non-cytotoxic derivative (PdB, n=3) were extracted and subjected to microarray analysis for contrasts of pneumolysin (PLY) versus control (PdB) treatment.