Matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8) is a potent interstitial collagenase thought to be expressed mainly by PMNs. To determine whether Mmp-8 regulates lung inflammatory or fibrotic responses to bleomycin, we delivered bleomycin by the intratracheal (IT) route to wild type (WT) vs. Mmp-8−/− mice and quantified Mmp-8 expression, and inflammation and fibrosis in the lung samples. Mmp-8 steady-state mRNA and protein levels increase in whole lung and bronchoalveolar lavage samples when WT mice are treated with bleomycin. Activated murine lung fibroblasts express Mmp-8 in vitro. MMP-8 expression is increased in leukocytes in the lungs of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis compared with control lung samples. Compared with bleomycin-treated WT mice, bleomycin-treated Mmp-8−/− mice have greater lung inflammation, but reduced lung fibrosis. While bleomycin-treated Mmp-8−/− and WT mice have similar lung levels of several pro- and anti-fibrotic mediators (Tgf-β, Il-13, JE, and Ifn-γ), Mmp-8−/− mice have higher lung levels of Ip-10 and Mip-1α. Genetically deleting either Ip-10 or Mip-1α in Mmp-8−/− mice abrogates their lung inflammatory response to bleomycin but reconstitutes their lung fibrotic response to bleomycin. Studies of bleomycin-treated Mmp-8 bone marrow-chimeric mice show that both leukocytes and lung parenchymal cells are sources of pro-fibrotic Mmp-8 during bleomycin-mediated lung fibrosis. Thus, during bleomycin-mediated lung injury, Mmp-8 dampens the lung acute inflammatory response but promotes lung fibrosis by reducing lung levels of Ip-10 and Mip-1α. These data indicate therapeutic strategies to reduce lung levels of MMP-8 may limit fibroproliferative responses to injury in the human lung.

To determine whether a disintegrin and a metalloproteinase-8 (Adam8) regulates allergic airway inflammation (AAI) and airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR), we compared AAI and AHR in wild type (WT) versus Adam8−/− mice in different genetic backgrounds sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA) or house dust mite protein extract (HDM). OVA- and HDM-treated Adam8−/− mice had higher lung leukocyte counts, more airway mucus metaplasia, greater lung levels of some TH2 cytokines, and higher methacholine-induced increases in central airway resistance than allergen-treated WT mice. Studies of OVA-treated Adam8 bone marrow chimeric mice confirmed that leukocyte-derived Adam8 predominantly mediated Adam8’s anti-inflammatory activities in murine airways. Airway eosinophils and macrophages both expressed Adam8 in WT mice with AAI. Adam8 limited AAI and AHR in mice by reducing leukocyte survival because: 1) Adam8−/− mice with AAI had fewer apoptotic eosinophils and macrophages in their airways than WT mice with AAI; and 2) Adam8−/− macrophages and eosinophils had reduced rates of apoptosis compared with WT leukocytes when the intrinsic (but not the extrinsic) apoptosis pathway was triggered in the cells in vitro. ADAM8 was robustly expressed by airway granulocytes in lung sections from human asthma patients but, surprisingly, airway macrophages had less ADAM8 staining than airway eosinophils. Thus, ADAM8 has anti-inflammatory activities during AAI in mice by activating the intrinsic apoptosis pathway in myeloid leukocytes. Strategies that increase ADAM8 levels in myeloid leukocytes may have therapeutic efficacy in asthma.