Inactivation Rap2a in Endothelial Cell Prevents Pulmonary Fibrosis by Regulating Immune Microenvironment Through MAP4K4-VCAM1 Signaling.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by progressive fibrotic remodeling accompanied by persistent endothelial activation and leukocyte infiltration. Although endothelial dysfunction is increasingly recognized as a key contributor to fibrogenesis, the intracellular signaling pathways that couple inflammatory cues to endothelial-immune interactions remain incompletely defined. Ras-related protein Rap2a (RAP2A), a small GTPase implicated in stress and inflammatory signaling, has not been systematically investigated in pulmonary endothelial cells during fibrotic lung injury. Here, using a bleomycin-induced experimental lung fibrosis model, we observed that RAP2A expression was markedly upregulated in pulmonary endothelial cells and correlated with disease severity. Endothelium-enriched knockdown of Rap2a via AAV9-Cdh5-shRNA attenuated inflammatory cell adhesion to the pulmonary endothelium, reduced fibrotic remodeling, and improved lung function. Mechanistically, RAP2A promoted endothelial activation by enhancing MAP4K4-dependent signaling and upregulating vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM1) in response to pro-inflammatory stimulation, thereby facilitating leukocyte-endothelial interactions. In vitro assays further demonstrated that RAP2A deficiency impaired tumor necrosis factor-α-induced endothelial adhesiveness without affecting basal endothelial integrity. Collectively, our findings identify endothelial RAP2A as a regulator of inflammatory endothelial activation in experimental lung fibrosis and suggest that targeting RAP2A-mediated signaling may represent a potential strategy to modulate endothelial-immune crosstalk during fibrotic lung injury.