Effect of hyperoxic exposure on neonatal lung cDCs expression

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic pulmonary sequela of preterm birth, increases susceptibility to respiratory viral infection. Exposure to hyperoxia of neontal mice (a model of BPD) increases the number of activated, IL-12 producing lung CD103+ dendritic cells (DCs) and augments the inflammatory response to rhinovirus infection. We used microarray analysis to detail the effect of hyperoxia on the gene expression of the two main subsets of lung cDC, including CD103+ DCs and CD11bhi DC. We identified distinct up- and down-regulated genes in response to hyperoxia in both cDC subclasses. Immature C57BL/6J mice were exposed to normoxia or hyperoxia (0.75 FiO2) for 14 days. Upon discontinuing the exposure the lungs were perfused, minced, digested to single cell suspension and processed for flow cytometry. Flow cytometry sorted CD103+ DCs and CD11bhi DCs were subjected to microarray analysis. Each sample contains sorted cells from two separate neonatal mouse lungs.