Vanadium Pentoxide Exposure Causes Strain-Dependent Changes in Mitochondrial DNA Heteroplasmy, Copy Number, and Lesions, but Not Nuclear DNA Lesions

Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) are lethal lung diseases characterized by pulmonary inflammation and progressive lung interstitial scarring. We previously developed a mouse model of ILD using vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) and identified several gene candidates on chromosome 4 associated with pulmonary fibrosis. While these data indicated a significant genetic contribution to ILD susceptibility, they did not include any potential associations and interactions with the mitochondrial genome that might influence disease risk. To conduct this pilot work, we selected the two divergent strains we previously categorized as V₂O₅-resistant C57BL6J (B6) and -responsive DBA/2J (D2) and compared their mitochondrial genome characteristics, including DNA variants, heteroplasmy, lesions, and copy numbers at 14- and 112-days post-exposure. While we did not find changes in the mitochondrial genome at 14 days post-exposure, at 112 days, we found that the responsive D2 strain exhibited significantly fewer mtDNA copies and more lesions than control animals. Alongside these findings, mtDNA heteroplasmy frequency decreased. These data suggest that mice previously shown to exhibit increased susceptibility to pulmonary fibrosis and inflammation sustain damage to the mitochondrial genome that is evident at 112 days post-V₂O₅ exposure.