Sex differences in lung vascular regeneration

Impaired lung regeneration and repair contribute to the pathogenesis of chronic lung diseases and there are sex-related differences in lung diseases. We have reported that endothelial signaling is necessary for regenerative lung growth after unilateral pneumonectomy (PNX). To develop more efficient strategy for lung diseases, we need to understand the sex-dependent mechanism of lung vascular regeneration. Post-PNX increases in the remaining lung weight are lower in the female mice compared to males. Post-PNX stimulation of alveolar and blood vessel formation and increases in the expression of angiogenic genes, VEGFR-2, Tie2, and PDGFB are higher in male mice. In our scRNA-seq data of post-PNX mouse lungs, extracellular matrix molecule biglycan expression is higher in the female mouse lung endothelial cells compared to male mice, suggesting that biglycan in endothelial cells may mediate sex-dependent differences in post-PNX lung growth. Understanding the sex-dependent mechanism of lung vascular regeneration would lead to the development of more specific strategies for lung diseases. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.