Paired Transcriptomic Profiling of Airspace and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells in Severe ARDS

The main objective of our study was to determine whether central biologic processes inferred from transcriptomic profiling of distal airspace mononuclear cells are reflected among circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) during the acute phase of ARDS. To compare mononuclear cells from the airspaces and bloodstream we collected paired peripheral blood and non-bronchoscopic BAL (NBBAL) samples from mechanically ventilated patients with severe ARDS and enriched for mononuclear cells using density centrifugation and cryopreservation. We then performed bulk RNA sequencing and evaluated gene expression profiles and gene expression networks between compartments.