Bleomycin hydrolase and a genetic locus within the MHC affect risk for pulmonary fibrosis in mice

Susceptibility to pulmonary fibrosis following environmental insults or cytotoxic cancer therapies has a genetic component. In mouse strains differing in susceptibility to bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis, we show highly significant linkage to only two loci. The first locus on chromosome 17 in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), LOD=17.4, named Blmpf1, is highly significant in both males and females, and accounts for approximately 20% of the phenotypic variance. We confirmed the presence of Blmpf1 in MHC congenic mice and narrowed the region to 2.7 cM in a reduced MHC congenic strain. The second locus on chromosome 11, LOD=5.6, named Blmpf2, is significant in males only. A model including an interaction between Blmpf1 and Blmpf2 best fit the data in males. We confirmed Blmpf2 in a chromosome substitution strain, C57BL/6J-11(C3H), and found that its presence reduces the severity of fibrosis. Functional studies of bleomycin hydrolase activity indicate that this enzyme modulates bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis, suggesting that it may be a candidate gene for Blmpf2. The data suggest sex-specific models of susceptibility to bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis, with an interaction between Blmpf2 and Blmpf1 for the more susceptible males and Blmpf1 as the major locus in females. A putative mechanism for the interaction between the two loci in males is that bleomycin hydrolase functions as an MHC class I epitope-processing protease.