Integrin β4 was downregulated on the airway epithelia of asthma patients  

作　　者：Chi Liu Yang Xiang Huijun Liu Yun Li Yurong Tan Xiaolin Zhu DanZeng Menglan Li Liwen Zhang Xiaoqun Qin 

机构地区：[1]Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China [2]Hunan People's Hospital, Changsha 410036, China

出　　处：《Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica》2010年第8期538-547,共10页生物化学与生物物理学报（英文版）

基　　金：The authors show our thanks to Professor Gruenert from the University of California, San Francisco for the gift of the immortalized human bronchial epithelial cell line 16HBE14O.This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China （No. 30670915 and No. 30800504）, and the Key Projects （No. 2007FJ3009） from Hunan Science and Technology Plans.

摘　　要：The shedding of airway epithelial cells and loss of epithelial functional homeostasis are major pathological characteristics of asthma; however, the mechanism underlying these pathologies remains obscure. Our previous work showed that there were three variation sites in 5＇ flanking region of integrin β4 in asthma patients, which was correlated with decreased expression of integrin β4 in peripheral leukoeytes. Integrin β4 is an important structural adhesion molecule on airway epithelia to keep the structural adhesion of epithelial cells. In this work, we further demonstrated that integrin β4 expression was downregulated in airway epithelia of asthma patients. To probe the relationship between imbalanced expression of integrin β4 and dysfunction of the airway epithelial cells in asthma, integrin β4 was silenced in human bronchial epithelium cells （16HBE140） by integrin β4 small-interfering RNA lentivirus vector. Upon silencing of integrin β4, 16HBE140 cells showed reduced proliferation and wound repair. Most cells were shown to be arrested in G1 phase after integrin β4 silencing, and increased apoptosis was induced in the integrin β4-silenced cells. In summary, our results provided compelling evidence that integrin β4 was involved in the structural integrity and functional homeostasis of airway epithelial ceils. It is likely that downregulafion of integrin β4 on asthma airway epithelia contributes to the structural disruption and dysfunction of airway epithelial cells.The shedding of airway epithelial cells and loss of epithelial functional homeostasis are major pathological characteristics of asthma; however, the mechanism underlying these pathologies remains obscure. Our previous work showed that there were three variation sites in 5＇ flanking region of integrin β4 in asthma patients, which was correlated with decreased expression of integrin β4 in peripheral leukoeytes. Integrin β4 is an important structural adhesion molecule on airway epithelia to keep the structural adhesion of epithelial cells. In this work, we further demonstrated that integrin β4 expression was downregulated in airway epithelia of asthma patients. To probe the relationship between imbalanced expression of integrin β4 and dysfunction of the airway epithelial cells in asthma, integrin β4 was silenced in human bronchial epithelium cells （16HBE140） by integrin β4 small-interfering RNA lentivirus vector. Upon silencing of integrin β4, 16HBE140 cells showed reduced proliferation and wound repair. Most cells were shown to be arrested in G1 phase after integrin β4 silencing, and increased apoptosis was induced in the integrin β4-silenced cells. In summary, our results provided compelling evidence that integrin β4 was involved in the structural integrity and functional homeostasis of airway epithelial ceils. It is likely that downregulafion of integrin β4 on asthma airway epithelia contributes to the structural disruption and dysfunction of airway epithelial cells.

关 键 词：integrin β4 airway epithelia ASTHMA SIRNA 

分 类 号：Q813.11[生物学—生物工程] Q26