The ErbB4 receptor in fetal rat lung fibroblasts and epithelial type II cells

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ErbB receptors are important regulators of fetal organ development, including the fetal lung. They exhibit diversity in signaling potential, acting through homo- and heterodimers to cause different biological responses. We hypothesized that ErbB receptors show cell-specific and stimuli-specific activation, heterodimerization, and cellular localization patterns in fetal lung. We investigated this using immunoblotting, co-immunoprecipitation, and confocal microscopy in primary isolated E19 fetal rat lung fibroblasts and epithelial type II cells, stimulated with epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factor α, neuregulin 1β, or treated with conditioned medium (CM) from the respective other cell type. Fetal type II cells expressed significantly more ErbB1, ErbB2, and ErbB3 protein than fibroblasts. ErbB4 was consistently identified by co-immunoprecipitation of all other ErbB receptors in both cell types independent of the treatments. Downregulation of ErbB4 in fibroblasts initiated cell–cell communication that stimulated surfactant phospholipid synthesis in type II cells. Confocal microscopy in type II cells revealed nuclear localization of all receptors, most prominently for ErbB4. Neuregulin treatment resulted in relocation to the extra-nuclear cytoplasmic region, which was distinct from fibroblast CM treatment which led to nuclear localization of ErbB4 and ErbB2, inducing co-localization of both receptors. We speculate that ErbB4 plays a prominent role in fetal lung mesenchyme–epithelial communication.