Yes-associated protein induces age-dependent inflammatory signaling in the pulmonary endothelium.

Acute lung injury (ALI) causes the highly lethal acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in children and adults, for which therapy is lacking. Children with pediatric ARDS have a mortality rate that is about half of adults with ARDS. Improved ALI measures can be reproduced in rodent models with juvenile animals, suggesting that physiologic differences may underlie these outcomes. Here, we show that pneumonia-induced ALI caused inflammatory signaling in the endothelium of adult mice, which depended on Yes-associated protein (YAP). This signaling was not present in 21-day-old weanling mice. Transcriptomic analysis of lung endothelial responses revealed nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) as significantly increased with ALI in adult versus weanling mice. Blockade of YAP signaling protected against inflammatory response, hypoxemia, and NF-κB nuclear translocation in response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia in adult mice. Our results demonstrate an important signaling cascade in the lung endothelium of adult mice that is not present in weanlings. We suggest other pathways may also exhibit age-dependent signaling, which would have important implications for ARDS therapeutics in the adult and pediatric age groups.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Like human patients, adult mice get worse lung injury than juveniles. In pneumonia-induced lung injury, Yes-associated protein is more highly expressed in the endothelium of adult mice than juveniles, causing more NF-κB nuclear translocation and inflammation. This could partly explain better outcomes in kids with pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome as compared with adults with ARDS.