Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) are characterized by inflammation or fibrosis of the pulmonary parenchyma. Despite the involvement of immune cells and soluble mediators in pulmonary fibrosis, the influence of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) remains underexplored. These effector molecules display a range of activities, which include immunomodulation and wound repair. Here, we investigate the role of AMPs in the development of fibrosis in ILD. We compare the concentration of different AMPs and different cytokines in 46 fibrotic (F-ILD) and 17 non-fibrotic (NF-ILD) patients by ELISA and using peripheral blood mononuclear cells from in vitro stimulation in the presence of lysozyme or secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) from 10 healthy donors. We observed that bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) levels of AMPs were decreased in F-ILD patients (lysozyme: p < 0.001; SLPI: p < 0.001; LL-37: p < 0.001; lactoferrin: p = 0.47) and were negatively correlated with levels of TGF-β (lysozyme: p = 0.02; SLPI: p < 0.001) and IL-17 (lysozyme: p < 0.001; SLPI: p < 0.001). We observed that lysozyme increased the percentage of CD86+ macrophages (p < 0.001) and the production of TNF-α (p < 0.001). We showed that lysozyme and SLPI were associated with clinical parameters (lysozyme: p < 0.001; SLPI: p < 0.001) and disease progression (lysozyme: p < 0.001; SLPI: p = 0.01). These results suggest that AMPs may play an important role in the anti-fibrotic response, regulating the effect of pro-fibrotic cytokines. In addition, levels of lysozyme in BAL may be a potential biomarker to predict the progression in F-ILD patients.
Keywords: AMPs; SLPI; fibrosis; immune cells; lysozyme.