LSC Abstract – Eosinophils enhance WNT-5a and TGF-β1 genes expression in airway smooth muscle cells and promote their proliferation in asthma

Abstract

Background: Recent studies suggest that eosinophils may have a direct action on airway smooth muscle cells (ASMC) causing their proliferation in asthma, but the precise mechanism of interaction between these cells remains unknown. Aim: To investigate the effect of eosinophils on WNT-5a,TGF-β 1 and ECM proteins genes expression connecting it to ASMC proliferation. Methods: 8 steroid free asthma patients and 10 healthy subjects were involved into study. Eosinophils were isolated from peripheral blood of each study subjects and individual co-cultures with ASMC were prepared. Adhesion of eosinophils to ASMC was evaluated by eosinophil peroxidase activity. Genesexpression in ASMC was measured using the PCR after 24 h of co-culture. Proliferation of ASMC was measured by Alamar blue method after 48 h and 72 h of co-culture. Results: Asthmatic eosinophils demonstrated increased adhesion to ASMC compared with healthy eosinophils (p 1 , collagen and fibronectin in ASMC was significantly higher compared to co-culture with healthy eosinophils, while healthy eosinophils increase only TGF-β 1 and fibronectin gene expression. ASMC proliferation was augmented after co-culture with eosinophils from asthma patients compared to co-culture with eosinophils from healthy subjects (p Conclusions: Eosinophils enhance WNT-5a and TGF-β1 genes expression in ASMC and promote proliferation of these cells by increased fibronectin and collagen production in asthma. This abstract has been presented previously at the European Respiratory Society9s Lung Science Conference in March 2016.