Toll-like Receptor 4 Deficiency Aggravates Airway Hyperresponsiveness and Inflammation by Impairing Neutrophil Apoptosis in a Toluene Diisocyanate-Induced Murine Asthma Model

Purpose@#Accumulating evidence has suggested that toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is critically involved in the pathogenesis of asthma. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of TLR4 in toluene diisocyanate (TDI)-induced allergic airway inflammation. @*Methods@#TLR4−/− and wild-type (WT) C57BL/10J mice were sensitized and challenged with TDI to generate a TDI-induced asthma model. B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) inhibitors, ABT-199 (4 mg/kg) and ABT-737 (4 mg/kg), were intranasally given to TDI-exposed TLR4−/− mice after each challenge. @*Results@#TDI exposure led to increased airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), granulocyte flux, bronchial epithelial shedding and extensive submucosal collagen deposition, which were unexpectedly aggravated by TLR4 deficiency. Following TDI challenge, TLR4−/− mice exhibited down-regulated interleukin-17A and increased colony-stimulating factor 3 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), while WT mice did not. In addition, TLR4 deficiency robustly suppressed the expression of NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 and NLR family CARD domain containing 4, decreased caspase-1 activity in TDI-exposed mice, but had no effect on the level of high mobility group box 1 in BALF. Flow cytometry revealed that TDI hampered both neutrophil and eosinophil apoptosis, of which neutrophil apoptosis was further inhibited in TDI-exposed TLR4−/− mice, with marked up-regulation of Bcl-2. Moreover, inhibition of Bcl-2 with either ABT-199 or ABT-737 significantly alleviated neutrophil recruitment by promoting apoptosis. @*Conclusions@#These data indicated that TLR4 deficiency promoted neutrophil infiltration by impairing its apoptosis via up-regulation of Bcl-2, thereby resulting in deteriorated AHR and airway inflammation, which suggests that TLR4 could be a negative regulator of TDI-induced neutrophilic inflammation.

Toll-like Receptor 4 Deficiency Aggravates Airway Hyperresponsiveness and Inflammation by Impairing Neutrophil Apoptosis in a Toluene Diisocyanate-Induced Murine Asthma Model

Purpose@#Accumulating evidence has suggested that toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is critically involved in the pathogenesis of asthma. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of TLR4 in toluene diisocyanate (TDI)-induced allergic airway inflammation. @*Methods@#TLR4−/− and wild-type (WT) C57BL/10J mice were sensitized and challenged with TDI to generate a TDI-induced asthma model. B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) inhibitors, ABT-199 (4 mg/kg) and ABT-737 (4 mg/kg), were intranasally given to TDI-exposed TLR4−/− mice after each challenge. @*Results@#TDI exposure led to increased airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), granulocyte flux, bronchial epithelial shedding and extensive submucosal collagen deposition, which were unexpectedly aggravated by TLR4 deficiency. Following TDI challenge, TLR4−/− mice exhibited down-regulated interleukin-17A and increased colony-stimulating factor 3 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), while WT mice did not. In addition, TLR4 deficiency robustly suppressed the expression of NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 and NLR family CARD domain containing 4, decreased caspase-1 activity in TDI-exposed mice, but had no effect on the level of high mobility group box 1 in BALF. Flow cytometry revealed that TDI hampered both neutrophil and eosinophil apoptosis, of which neutrophil apoptosis was further inhibited in TDI-exposed TLR4−/− mice, with marked up-regulation of Bcl-2. Moreover, inhibition of Bcl-2 with either ABT-199 or ABT-737 significantly alleviated neutrophil recruitment by promoting apoptosis. @*Conclusions@#These data indicated that TLR4 deficiency promoted neutrophil infiltration by impairing its apoptosis via up-regulation of Bcl-2, thereby resulting in deteriorated AHR and airway inflammation, which suggests that TLR4 could be a negative regulator of TDI-induced neutrophilic inflammation.

Cell-in-Cell Death Is Not Restricted by Caspase-3 Deficiency in MCF-7 Cells / 한국유방암학회지

PURPOSE: Cell-in-cell structures are created by one living cell entering another homotypic or heterotypic living cell, which usually leads to the death of the internalized cell, specifically through caspase-dependent cell death (emperitosis) or lysosome-dependent cell death (entosis). Although entosis has attracted great attention, its occurrence is controversial, because one cell line used in its study (MCF-7) is deficient in caspase-3. METHODS: We investigated this issue using MCF-7 and A431 cell lines, which often display cell-in-cell invasion, and have different levels of caspase-3 expression. Cell-in-cell death morphology, microstructures, and signaling pathways were compared in the two cell lines. RESULTS: Our results confirmed that MCF-7 cells are caspase-3 deficient with a partial deletion in the CASP-3 gene. These cells underwent cell death that lacked typical apoptotic properties after staurosporine treatment, whereas caspase-3-sufficient A431 cells displayed typical apoptosis. The presence of caspase-3 was related neither to the lysosome-dependent nor to the caspase-dependent cell-in-cell death pathway. However, the existence of caspase-3 was associated with a switch from lysosome-dependent cell-in-cell death to the apoptotic cell-in-cell death pathway during entosis. Moreover, cellular hypoxia, mitochondrial swelling, release of cytochrome C, and autophagy were observed in internalized cells during entosis. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of caspase-independent entosis is not a cell-specific process. In addition, entosis actually represents a cellular self-repair system, functioning through autophagy, to degrade damaged mitochondria resulting from cellular hypoxia in cell-in-cell structures. However, sustained autophagy-associated signal activation, without reduction in cellular hypoxia, eventually leads to lysosome-dependent intracellular cell death.

Expression and purification of Litopenaeus vannamei allergen protein Lit v1.2 / 中国免疫学杂志

Objective:To obtain purified recombinant Litopenaeus vannamei allergen protein Lit v 1.2.Methods: The target gene of Lit v 1.2 was inserted into clone vector pGEM-T and then ligated to the expression vector pET 44a.The pET44a-Liv 1.2 was transformed into Rosetta and screened by ampicillin resistance .The recombinant protein was expressed by IPTG induction .The protein was purified by 6-His tag affinity chromatography and the purification was analyzed by SDS-PAGE gel electrophoresis .Results:The ex-pression plasmid pET44a-Lit v 1.2 was constructed.SDS-PAGE showed that expressed Lit v 1.2 was efficient and soluble in E.coli Rosetta.The protein molecular weight was consistent with the theoretical value .The highly purified target protein was obtained.Conclusion:In this study ,we successfully gained highly purified recombinant allergen protein Lit v 1.2 which was expressed in prokaryotic system and purified by affinity chromatography column .The purified Lit v 1.2 protein will facilitate us to further study its role in immunological responses .

Application status of odds ratio for medical animal experiments / 中国药理学通报

Aim To study the application status of odds ratio for medical animal experiments.Methods Odds ratio and seven kinds of animal models were used as retrieval strategy to search medical animal experiment related papers in several Chinese and English databases.Papers relating to each kind of animal model and using odds ratio in abstract and text were counted. Data from different databases were compared. Calculation of odds ratio was exemplified and the significance of different odds ratio values was illustrated in this paper.Results Few medical animal experiments cited odds ratio as statistics.Conclusions The importance of odds ratio has not been fully recognized in Chinese references.