Lung pericyte-like cells are functional interstitial immune sentinel cells

Pericytes are perivascular PDGF receptor-β+ (PDGFRβ+) stromal cells required for vasculogenesis and maintenance of microvascular homeostasis in many organs. Because of their unique juxtaposition to microvascular endothelium, lung PDGFRβ+ cells are well situated to detect proinflammatory molecules released following epithelial injury and promote acute inflammatory responses. Thus we hypothesized that these cells represent an unrecognized immune surveillance or injury-sentinel interstitial cell. To evaluate this hypothesis, we isolated PDGFRβ+ cells from murine lung and demonstrated that they have characteristics consistent with a pericyte population (referred to as pericyte-like cells for simplicity hereafter). We showed that pericyte-like cells expressed functional Toll-like receptors and upregulated chemokine expression following exposure to bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) collected from mice with sterile lung injury. Interestingly, BALF from mice without lung injury also induced chemokine expression...