# Predisposition for Lung Injury in Sepsis Survival

> **NIH NIH K08** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $169,560

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This proposal describes a five-year career development plan designed to provide Scott Denstaedt, MD with
training in new techniques through mentored research and didactics to facilitate a career as an independent
physician-scientist studying mechanisms of long-term pulmonary complications in patients surviving sepsis.
Research plan: Despite modern supportive care, recovery from sepsis is associated with increased risk for
hospital readmission and death. Nearly one in ten patients with sepsis will be re-hospitalized within 90-days
with pulmonary conditions including pneumonia, aspiration pneumonitis, and/or respiratory failure. We do not
understand the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying these complications and have no targeted
therapies to prevent them. Dr. Denstaedt has developed a mouse model in which survivors of sepsis have
enhanced (primed) immune responses to lung injury. Specifically, twenty-one days after sepsis there is
enhanced lung permeability and neutrophil recruitment following intranasal lipopolysaccharide. Dr. Denstaedt’s
prior work demonstrated that chronic brain dysfunction after sepsis is associated with innate immune priming
and persistent elevations of the danger signal protein S100A8/A9. The central hypothesis of this proposal is
that persistent S100A8/A9 signaling through TLR4 primes inflammatory monocytes predisposing to enhanced
lung injury. Aim 1 investigates how changes in inflammatory monocytes persisting in the lung after sepsis
predispose to enhanced alveolar damage after sterile or infectious lung injury. Immunostaining and fluorescent
microscopy with stereology, gene expression, and epigenetics assays will be performed to evaluate pathways
of inflammation and cell death. A causal link between primed monocytes and enhanced lung injury will be
examined in vivo by monocyte depletion and in vitro by monocyte/epithelial cell co-culture. In Aim 2,
S100A8/A9 inhibition and cell-specific TLR4 deletion will determine the effect of S100A8/A9-TLR4 signaling on
enhanced lung injury and priming after sepsis. Inflammatory phenotypes predisposing to injury will be
assessed by microscopy, gene expression, and epigenetics assays. The role of plasma S100A8/A9 from post-
sepsis patients in priming human monocytes will be examined by gene expression and epigenetics assays.
Applicant: Scott Denstaedt, MD has completed training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He has
acquired extensive research experience in the last four years studying chronic brain dysfunction in a model of
long-term sepsis survival. The proposed training will provide new knowledge in lung injury and epigenetics to
examine the underlying mechanisms of post-sepsis pulmonary complications. Technical training includes
advanced microscopy and stereology, primary cell co-culture, state-of-the-art epigenetics assays, cell-specific
inducible knockout mouse modeling, and in vitro human translational studies. The training plan, mentorship
...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10212780
- **Project number:** 1K08HL153799-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Scott John Denstaedt
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $169,560
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-05-01 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10212780

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10212780, Predisposition for Lung Injury in Sepsis Survival (1K08HL153799-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10212780. Licensed CC0.

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