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INSERM, Unit 700, Faculté Bichat, Université Paris 7, Paris, France

To the Editor:

We read with great interest the paper by Jain and colleagues showing that endothelin could participate in the epithelial–mesenchymal transition of alveolar type II cells (AEC) in vitro (1). The authors state in the introduction to their article that "it is not known whether ET-1 is produced by AEC." We disagree with this statement. Indeed, our group has previously shown without any ambiguity that rat alveolar type 2 cells in primary culture express preproET-1 mRNA and secrete ET-1 in vitro (2, 3), and that ET-1 production by AEC is regulated both by environmental factors, such as hypoxia (2), and by soluble factors secreted by alveolar macrophages, such as interleukin-1 (3). It should also be stressed that alveolar macrophages are themselves a significant source of ET-1 in the alveolar space and could therefore contribute to the ET-1 burden in fibrotic lung diseases as we have shown in systemic sclerosis in the lung (4).

Footnotes

Conflict of Interest Statement: B.C. does not have a financial relationship with a commercial entity that has an interest in the subject of this manuscript.

References

1. Jain R, Shaul PW, Borok Z, Willis BC. Endothelin-1 induces alveolar epithelial–mesenchymal transition through endothelin type A–mediated production of TGF-1. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2007;37:38–47.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Crestani B, Odoux C, Rolland C, Moldovan F, Cornillet P, Fiet J, Aubier M. Hypoxia reduces endothelin production by rat alveolar type II cells in primary culture. Eur Respir J 1998;11:392–399.[Abstract]
3. Odoux C, Crestani B, Lebrun G, Rolland C, Aubin P, Fournier T, Fiet J, Aubier M. IL-1 beta inhibits ET-1 production by ATII cells in vitro: evidence for involvement of cyclooxygenase 2 pathway. Am J Physiol 1997;273:L193–L200.[Medline]
4. Odoux C, Crestani B, Lebrun G, Rolland C, Aubin P, Seta N, Kahn MF, Fiet J, Aubier M. Endothelin-1 secretion by alveolar macrophages in systemic sclerosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1997;156:1429–1435.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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