Journal of cellular physiology
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We sought to explore the treatment effects and the repair mechanisms of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) during HCl-induced acute lung injury (ALI). MSCs were delivered through the tail veins of rats 24 h after intranasal instillation of HCl. The results showed that MSCs did not ameliorate the histopathologic changes of ALI and pulmonary fibrosis. ⋯ Furthermore, Wnt3α activated Wnt/β-catenin signaling in lung fibroblasts to enhance the expression of collagen I, vimentin and α-smooth muscle actin, but DKK1 attenuated these proteins expression. These findings demonstrated that canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling plays a key role in regulating differentiation of MSCs in vivo or in vitro and the pathogenesis of fibrotic diseases. Our study suggested that inhibition of abnormal activated Wnt/β-catenin signaling would promote MSCs epithelial differentiation to repair lung injury and reduce pulmonary fibrosis.