Adenosine A2A Receptor Blockade or Deletion Diminishes Fibrocyte Accumulation in the Skin in a Murine Model of Scleroderma, Bleomycin-induced Fibrosis

Peripheral blood fibrocytes are a newly identified circulating leukocyte subpopulation that migrates into injured tissue where it may display fibroblast-like properties and participate in wound healing and fibrosis of skin and other organs. Previous studies in our lab demonstrated that A(2A) receptor-deficient and A(2A) antagonist-treated mice were protected from developing bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis, thus the aim of this study was to determine whether the adenosine A(2A) receptor regulates recruitment of fibrocytes to the dermis in this bleomycin-induced model of dermal fibrosis. Sections of skin from normal mice and bleomycin-treated wild type, A(2A) knockout and A(2A) antagonist-treated mice were stained for Procollagen alpha 2 Type I and CD34 and the double stained cells,fibrocytes, were counted in the tissue sections. There were more fibrocytes in the dermis of bleomycin-treated mice than normal mice and the increase was abrogated by deletion or blockade of adenosine A(2A) receptors. Because fibrocytes play a central role in tissue fibrosis these results suggest that diminished adenosine A(2A) receptor-mediated recruitment of fibrocytes into tissue may play a role in the pathogenesis of fibrosing diseases of the skin. Moreover, these results provide further evidence that adenosine A(2A) receptors may represent a new target for the treatment of such fibrosing diseases as scleroderma or nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy.