ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE To investigate and elucidate the role of histamine on the regulation of tight junctions(TJs) gene expression of the airway epithelial cells. METHODS We cultured primary human bronchial epithelial cells from healthy and asthmatic individuals in the presence of histamine for 96 hours in air-liquid interface (ALI) culture system. The TJs expression on the level of mRNA and protein was determined by RT-qPCR and immunofluorescence (confocal microscopy), respectively. RESULTS A RT-qPCR analysis revealed that the mRNA expression of several TJs were up- or down-regulated by histamine. However, examination by confocal microscope revealed no detectable alterations in the morphology of the tight junctions after stimulating with histamine. CONCLUSION Our findings that histamine could regulate the mRNA expression of TJs of bronchial epithelial cells. That might contribute to the pathogenesis of chronic airway inflammatory diseases.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate whether the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the FCER1A gene are associated with serum total IgE level in Chinese allergic rhinitis (AR) cohort.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 378 patients diagnosed as AR was included in this study. Serum total IgE level was detected by UniCAP100 testing system. A total of 8 representativeness marker SNP which were in FCER1A gene region were selected according to the Beijing people database from Hapmap website and the running results of Haploview 4.1 software. The individual genotyping was performed by MassARRAY platform.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Three hundred and seventy-eight individuals (227 males and 151 females) with AR were prospectively recruited. The median of the total serum IgE measurements for the study population were 150 kU/L and ranged from 6.94 kU/L to 5000 kU/L. Levene tests showed the homogeneity of variance of total IgE level among different genotypes regarding each SNP locus. ANOVA tests demonstrated that none of the selected polymorphism loci in FCER1A was associated with total IgE level.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Present study failed to find an association between SNP in the FCER1A gene region and serum total IgE level in Chinese AR.</p>