Background
Major advances in neonatal intensive care have not reduced the incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) or neonatal chronic lung disease (CLD) in premature infants, because increased neonatal survival has shifted the affected population to premature infants born at less than 28 weeks of gestation [
1,
2]. The incidence of BPD is stable at 35–40% of extremely premature infants [
2,
3]. Treatment of respiratory failure due to lung immaturity and surfactant deficiency in these extremely premature infants with invasive respiratory support and supplemental oxygen may injure the developing lung permanently [
4]. BPD is characterized by a reduced alveolar surface and impaired lung function due to enlarged alveoli caused by oxidative stress-induced lung damage and arrested alveolar development [
1]. Prenatal insults, perinatal inflammation, oxidative stress and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) complicate BPD pathogenesis and contribute to adult lung disease, like COPD, at relatively young ages [
2,
3,
5,
6]. Effective pharmacological treatment for BPD is lacking and badly needed.
The neonatal rat is a suitable animal model for studying BPD pathogenesis and novel treatment options [
7‐
10]. These rodents are born during the saccular stage of lung development, mimicking the lung development stage of infants at high risk for BPD, and develop chronic lung inflammation, followed by persistent alveolar simplification, lung fibrosis, PAH and right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH) after exposure to hyperoxia [
1,
11].
Ibuprofen is a potent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is extensively used for the treatment of colorectal cancer, lung inflammation in cystic fibrosis, and closure of a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in premature neonates [
12‐
15]. However, information about its effect on aberrant lung development after premature birth and the pathogenesis of BPD is incomplete and controversial, ranging from concerns about adverse effects, no impact, to beneficial effects on BPD in premature infants [
15‐
20]. Our previous clinical study and a meta-analysis have indicated an increased risk for BPD in ibuprofen-treated infants [
16,
20]. Other experimental studies suggested an anti-angiogenic effect of ibuprofen in ocular angiogenesis in neonatal rats [
21] and embryonic development in zebrafish [
22]. Considering the essential role of angiogenesis in the pathogenesis of BPD [
2] and the fact that each year millions of premature infants receive ibuprofen for PDA closure [
17], of which some are exposed to repeated or prolonged courses of ibuprofen treatment [
23], there is an urgent need to unravel the potential role of ibuprofen in normal lung development and BPD pathogenesis after premature birth.
To advance our knowledge on the effect of ibuprofen treatment on perinatal lung development and BPD, we studied the effect of ibuprofen on endothelial cell function in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), and the effect on alveolar and vascular development and lung inflammation in neonatal rats kept under conditions of normoxia or hyperoxia to induce experimental BPD [
24].
Discussion
Ibuprofen compromised endothelial function in HUVECs by inducing oxidative stress-related DNA damage and arresting the cell cycle in the S-phase, which subsequently promoted endothelial apoptosis. The anti-angiogenic effect of ibuprofen in HUVECs, demonstrated by inhibition of cell proliferation, migration and tube formation ability, confirms previously published data [
30]. Because ibuprofen is frequently used to treat a patent ductus arteriosus after premature birth, a patient population at risk of developing BPD, and angiogenesis plays a crucial role in normal and aberrant postnatal lung development, these findings prompted us to study the role of ibuprofen in normal neonatal lung development and in the pathogenesis of experimental BPD in rats [
18,
31]. The anti-angiogenic effect of ibuprofen in HUVECs was confirmed in vivo in rat pups in which ibuprofen treatment during normal neonatal lung development had adverse effects on pulmonary vascular development that resulted in a reduced vascular bed. However, beneficial effects were also demonstrated in rat pups with hyperoxia-induced experimental BPD in which treatment with ibuprofen attenuated disease progression and lung injury by reducing lung inflammation, preventing pulmonary vascular remodeling and preserving alveolar development.
Ibuprofen-induced inhibition of angiogenesis was demonstrated by a reduced vascular bed in newborn rat pups raised in normoxia showing a reduced number of blood vessels after ibuprofen treatment using two different endothelial markers: vWF and CD31. An ibuprofen-induced inhibition of vascular development was observed in rat ocular development [
21], cardiovascular development in zebrafish [
22] and tumor growth and metastasis [
30,
32]. The potential mechanisms involved include inhibition of vascular growth factors, like vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF) [
33‐
35], inhibition of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase (ERK2) activity [
36], and direct inhibition of cell function [
32]. Here, we found that multiple pathways were affected in ibuprofen-treated HUVECs, including the well-known angiogenesis related pathways: VEGF signaling, HIF signaling and Hippo signaling, as well as processes involved in cell cycle, apoptosis, senescence, necroptosis and ferroptosis, of which the cell cycle was the most significantly affected one. We further confirmed the arrest of the cell cycle at S stage in ibuprofen treated HUVECs. Although much is known about the regulation of the G1/S, G2/M, and metaphase/anaphase transitions by different cyclin-dependent kinases (cDKs) and their activating cyclin subunits, less is known about the control mechanism for the S/G2 transition. The expression of CDK1/2, CHK1 and cyclin A, which were suggested to be involved in S phase or S/G2 transition [
37], were significantly down regulated by ibuprofen in the RNA-seq data (data not shown). In addition, experimental evidence strongly suggests that DNA damage is a trigger for S/G2 arrestment [
38]. Therefore, we examined the 8-OHdG level to indicate DNA injury and found that ibuprofen increased 8-OHdG expression, probably reflecting DNA damage in HUVECs, thereby leading to the arrest in the S stage and resulting in cell apoptosis shown in this study and by others [
29,
34,
39]. Besides, we also found the apelin/APJ pathway as one of the most affected pathways by ibuprofen in our RNA seq data (Fig.
2A), in which apelin is a potent vasodilator and protects effectively against experimental BPD in rat pups [
9].
Inflammation plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of BPD and may contribute to severe lung tissue damage and fibrosis, and treatment with anti-inflammatory agents protects against hyperoxia-induced experimental BPD [
11,
40,
41]. Since ibuprofen is a potent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, we expected an anti-inflammation effect of ibuprofen in our experimental model. Indeed, ibuprofen protected against hyperoxia-induced lung injury in rat pups by reducing the influx of inflammatory cells, mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory genes, vascular remodeling and alveolar enlargement in the current study. The anti-inflammatory effect of ibuprofen in neonatal rats with experimental BPD is supported by observations in multiple in vivo models of lung disease in dogs, rabbits and sheep with sepsis, in mice with trauma and septic challenge, in rats with ventilator-induced or endotoxic lung injury, in sheep with thrombin-induced lung vascular leakage [
42‐
44] and in cystic fibrosis patients with lung inflammation [
45]. The mechanism of anti-inflammation by ibuprofen has been established by blocking COXs activity, thereby attenuating prostaglandin mediated inflammation [
46]. Our data confirm previous studies demonstrating protection against hyperoxia-induced BPD in rodents treated with (selective) COX2 inhibitors, including aspirin and celecoxib and in genetically modified COX2
−/−mice [
47].
The absence of alveolar enlargement in ibuprofen treated rat pups kept in normoxia and the beneficial effect of ibuprofen on aberrant alveolar development and vascular remodeling in experimental BPD was unexpected, because in BPD pathogenesis alveolar enlargement is believed to be driven by aberrant vascular development [
1,
31]. We speculate that (1) despite its anti-angiogenic effect ibuprofen preserves vascular integrity, thereby preventing alveolar enlargement in rat pups kept in normoxia and (2) ibuprofen alleviates BPD pathology in rat pups kept in hyperoxia by reducing the inflammatory response and preserving vascular integrity thereby preventing aberrant alveolar development and vascular remodelling. Our findings are supported by experimental data by Kuniyoshi et al. [
48], who found reduced alveolarization in neonatal rats treated with indomethacin, but not in ibuprofen treated neonatal rats. Their histological data clearly demonstrate that, in contrast to indomethacin treatment, early and late treatment with ibuprofen prevents alveolar enlargement in neonatal rats with experimental BPD. However, this beneficial effect of ibuprofen on alveolar enlargement in experimental BPD was not claimed by Kuniyoshi et al. [
48]. A protective effect of ibuprofen in the lung was also demonstrated in premature baboons on lung development and in adult rats with ventilator-induced lung injury [
43,
49].
Although clinical studies suggest that ibuprofen treatment for PDA closure in very premature infants might be a risk factor for PAH [
19], our data do not support this potential adverse effect. We demonstrated that treatment of neonatal rats with ibuprofen had no adverse effects on arterial vascular remodeling during normal postnatal development and even prevented vascular remodeling in pups with experimental BPD, which is a readout for PAH in this experimental BPD model [
11,
50]. The beneficial effects of ibuprofen on pulmonary vascular remodeling were unexpected, because reduced intracellular cAMP levels caused by prostaglandin inhibition in vascular smooth muscle cells are expected to exacerbate PAH [
51,
52]. This unexpected finding may be explained indirectly via a dampening of the inflammatory response by ibuprofen, thereby preserving endothelial cell integrity and function, and reducing smooth muscle cell proliferation and contraction [
53]. Alternatively, the beneficial effect on vascular remodeling can also be mediated via ibuprofen’s off-target effect of elevating intracellular cGMP levels via cGMP-selective phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibition [
54,
55]. This explanation is supported by the beneficial effects of agents that increase intracellular cGMP levels, either by stimulating the NO-eNOS-cGMP pathway with inhaled NO, apelin or soluble guanylate cyclase modulators or inhibiting cGMP breakdown with the specific cGMP-selective PDE5 inhibitor sildenafil, in newborn rats with experimental BPD that our group and others described previously [
9,
50,
56‐
58]. Interestingly, the beneficial effects of ibuprofen on experimental BPD may be explained by activation of the apelin/APJ pathway, which we have demonstrated to protect against experimental BPD in rats [
9].
In this study, we exposed pups to ibuprofen for the whole experimental period (10 days), which varies from clinical practice, where ibuprofen is usually given to preterm infants for 3 days to close a PDA. Short versus prolonged and early versus late exposure to ibuprofen may affect its anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic effects. The anti-inflammatory effect of ibuprofen might be absent if ibuprofen is given for a short period and inflammation has not yet been established. Similarly, the anti-angiogenic effect of ibuprofen might be absent if given at a later stage when vascular growth is less vulnerable. We have recently demonstrated that ibuprofen reduces vascular growth factors, such as PDGF-BB, VEGF-A and HIF-2ɑ, in infants with PDA [
59], confirming that the anti-angiogenic effect of ibuprofen is already present in human infants exposed for 3 days. Although this adverse effect on vascular growth might be absent when ibuprofen is given at a later stage, it may compromise its positive effect on PDA closure. This is in line with a recent clinical trial showing that ibuprofen significantly increased the risk of BPD in infants with a PDA [
60] in the absence of its anti-inflammatory and presence of its anti-angiogenic effect. In the experimental BPD pups both the anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory effects were present and this might explain the different findings between our and clinical studies.
We acknowledge several limitations in this work. We used HUVECs in the in vitro experiments to study the effects of ibuprofen on angiogenesis. Although HUVECs are primary endothelial cells isolated from the umbilical cord vein and widely used in endothelial function studies, there might be fundamental differences between pulmonary micro vessels and the umbilical cord vein. Furthermore, since the ductus arteriosus closes naturally within 3 days in newborn rodent pups, we could not investigate the influence of ibuprofen on ductus closure, and the associated effect on BPD conferred by our and other clinical studies. Furthermore, we did not determine the gender of the pups in our study, obliviating the possibility to establish a potential difference in ibuprofen effect between males and females.
Ibuprofen exhibits an anti-angiogenic effect in HUVECs and the developing lung, which is considered an adverse effect in lung development and the pathogenesis of BPD, and beneficial effects in experimental BPD by promoting alveolarization, reducing inflammation and preventing vascular remodeling. This suggests that the beneficial effects of ibuprofen outperform the adverse effects in hyperoxia-induced experimental BPD in rat pups. However, extrapolation of the beneficial effects of ibuprofen and other NSAIDs to premature infants with BPD should be done with extreme caution. Similarly, prolonged and repeated courses of ibuprofen treatment for PDA closure in premature infants should be carefully considered.
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