Differential analysis of lung transcriptomics in rats exposed to pure oxygen at high altitude
TU Lei
LIU Manling
MA Heng
LIU Xiaopeng
Abstract：Objective To explore the effect of inhaling pure oxygen at an altitude of 10 000 m on transcriptomics of rat lung tissue.Methods Sixty SD rats were randomly divided into normal control group,air inhalation group at an altitude of 10 000 m,and pure oxygen inhalation group at an altitude of 10 000 m.The rats in the normal control group inhaled air under normal pressure for 4 weeks.The remaining rats were placed in a specially designed low-pressure hyperoxic chamber(at an altitude of 10 000 m)for 8 h/d for 4 consecutive weeks.The rats in the pure oxygen inhalation group at an altitude of 10 000 m inhaled pure oxygen while entering the hyperoxic chamber.The rats in the air inhalation group at an altitude of 10 000 m only inhaled air.The survival rate,partial pressure of oxygen[p(O2)],partial pressure of carbon dioxide[p(CO2)],left lung wet/dry weight ratio and lung/body weight ratio were detected,and lung tissue slices were prepared and pathological morphological analysis was performed.Then transcriptomic sequencing of rat lung tissue was performed to screen differentially expressed genes(DEGs)for GO and KEGG enrichment analysis,and PPI interaction network was constructed.Results All the rats in the air inhalation group at an altitude of 10 000 m died,the lung tissue was seriously injured,and the inflammation score was significantly increased(P＜0.01).However,all the rats in the pure oxygen inhalation group at an altitude of 10 000 m survived,and there were no significant differences in p(CO2),p(O2),lung wet/dry weight ratio and lung/body weight ratio between rats in the pure oxygen inhalation group at an altitude of 10 000 m and normal control group,the lung tissue structure was slightly damaged,and the inflammation score was significantly decreased(P＜0.01).In addition,compared with normal control group,transcriptomic sequencing screened 205 DEGs(149 upregulated genes and 56 downregulated genes),mainly distributed in cells,organelles,and cell membrane structures.Biological processes were mainly clustered in cellular processes,responses to stimuli,and regulation of biological processes.The molecular functions were mainly enriched in binding,catalytic activity,signal transduction activity,molecular transduction activity,nucleic acid binding transcription factor activity,etc.KEGG enrichment analysis showed that DEGs were distributed in signaling pathways such as immune regulation,inflammatory response,and natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity.Conclusion Pure oxygen inhalation at an altitude of 10 000 m(8 h/d for 4 consecutive weeks)not only effectively avoids high-altitude hypoxia,but also prevents serious lung injury induced by oxygen poisoning happening.This study provides parameters,basis and guidelines for the evaluation of high-altitude work protection under aerospace conditions.
Keywords：high-altitude flightinhaling pure oxygenlung tissue transcriptomicsdifferentially expressed genes
Publication Date：2025-01-27
Online Publishing Date：2026-08-26(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)