Aberrant Transitional Alveolar Epithelial Cells Promote Pathogenic Activation of Lung Fibroblasts in Preclinical Fibrosis Modeling (Bulk RNA-Seq)

CD44+ and CD44- negative Alveolar type 2 cells (AT2) represent distinct populations in lung fibrosis. To charecterize these cells, we isolated CD44+/- AT2s from WT mice and from fibrotic Sftpc muant lungs and performd RNA sequencing no these populations To determine the transcriptional distinctions between CD44+ and CD44- alveolar type 2 (AT2) cells during fibrosis we isolated AT2 by FACS from lungs of control (n=4) and Sftpc mutant lungs (n=4). Lungs were harvested from control and Sftpc mutant lungs, single cells suspension was prepared by mehcanical and enzymatic digetsion. CD45+ and CD31+ cells were depleted using biotinylated antibodies followed by surface staining with antibody mix to identify CD44+ and CD44- AT2s. AT2 cells were identified as CD45-CD31-Epcam+CD104-CD200hi and then CD44+ or CD44-.