Nunzia Caporarello, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Lung injury, repair, and fibrosis
Education
Ph.D. in Basic and Applied Biomedical Sciences University of Catania (Italy)
Research Interests
Research Interests
The Caporarello Lab is a pulmonary translational laboratory focused on mechanisms of lung injury and repair in the context of chronic respiratory diseases, such as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. The lab has a strong interest in understanding mechanisms through which the pulmonary vasculature promotes lung repair after injury, and how aging and disease disrupt this reparative function. We use mouse models to study vascular responses to lung injury, and human lung samples to translate preclinical findings into understanding of human disease progression. The goal is to translate basic understanding of vascular pathophysiology into novel interventions for chronic lung diseases. The lab has also interest in identifying endothelial derived signaling molecules (angiocrine factors) and circulating factors central to lung repair, that might be missing or dysregulated with lung aging/disease.
Publications/Research Listings
Fiorenza Giani’, Benjamin B. Roos, Patrick A. Link, Bharath Somasundram, Sara R Dresler, Enrico Sciacca, Carlo Vancheri, Naureen Javeed, Giovanni Ligresti, Nunzia Caporarello. Vascular protection by young circulating extracellular vesicles ameliorates aging-related pulmonary fibrosis. American J Physiol – Cell Physiology. 2025 Jun 24. DOI: 10.1152/ajpcell.00022.2025.
Nunzia Caporarello and Giovanni Ligresti. Vascular contribution to lung repair and fibrosis. American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology. 2023 May 2. DOI:10.1165/RCMB.2022-0431TR.
Kalpana R Betageri, Patrick A Link, Andrew J Haak, Giovanni Ligresti, Daniel J Tschumperlin, Nunzia Caporarello. The matricellular protein CCN3 promotes lung endothelial homeostasis and function. American J Physiol Cell Mol Physiol. 2022 Dec 27. DOI: 10.1152/ajplung.00248.2022.
Caporarello N, Lee J, Pham TX, Guan J, Jones DL, Link PA, Meridew JA, Marden G, Yamashita T, Huang SK, Nicosia RF, Tschumperlin DJ, Trojanowska M, Ligresti G. Dysfunctional ERG signaling drives pulmonary vascular aging and persistent fibrosis. Nature Communications. 2022 Jul 25. PMID: 35879310. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31890-4.
Caporarello N, Meridew JA, Aravamudhan A, Jones DL, Austin SA, Pham TX, Haak AJ, Moo Choi K, Tan Q, Haresi A, Huang SK, Katusic ZS, Tschumperlin DJ, Ligresti G. Vascular dysfunction in aged mice contributes to persistent lung fibrosis. Aging Cell. 2020 Aug; 19 (8):e13196 Epub 2020 July 21 PMID: 32691484 PMCID: 7431829 DOI: 10.1111/acel.13196.
Caporarello N, Meridew JA, Jones DL, Tan Q, Haak AJ, Choi KM, Manlove LJ, Prakash YS, Tschumperlin DJ, Ligresti G. PGC1alpha repression in IPF fibroblasts drives a pathologic metabolic,
secretory and fibrogenic state. Thorax. 2019 Aug; 74 (8):749-760 Epub 2019 June 10 PMID: 31182654 PMCID: 6703129 DOI: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2019-213064.