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2014
2014
2014
C
in a humidifed, 5% CO
2
/95% air, water-jacketed in-
cubator. After the cells reached near 80%confuence,
they were serum-starved for 24 hours before sequen-
tial treatments, and the in vitro studies were done in
serum-free media unless otherwise indicated.
Western Blot Analysis for EGFR
Phosphorylation
After treatments, cells were lysed in M-PER mam-
malian protein extraction reagent, and protein
concentrations were determined using BCA protein
assay. Samples containing an equal amount of total
protein (30 g) were subjected to SDS-PAGE on the
8% glycine-based gel, and dissolved proteins were
transferred to a polyvinylidene difuoride membrane
(300 mA, 4 hours). After the nonspecifc binding
sites were blocked with 5% BSA, the membranes
were incubated with primary Abs against phospho-
rylated EGFR (diluted 1:200 with TBST buffer)
overnight at 4
C for
10 minutes before cell supernatants were collected for
use. The TACE substrate solution was freshly pre-
pared with TACE substrate (Component A) diluted
in Assay buffer by the proportion of 1:100. Equal
amounts of cell supernatants were incubated with
50 L of TACE substrate solution for 30 minutes at
37
C, and the
supernatants were stored at 80
P < .01 versus untreated control, P < .01 versus LL-37 alone.
is involved in the ectodomain shedding of pro-TGF-
induced by LL-37 in NCI-H292 cells, we utilized
TAPI-1, an inhibitor of metalloprotease. We found
that TAPI-1 inhibited soluble TGF- release, EGFR
phosphorylation and MUC5AC mucin production
induced by LL-37, implicating metalloprotease ac-
tivity in these processes. TACE is one member of a
disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM) family pro-
teases and is constitutively expressed in NCI-H292
cells [13, 23]. It has been reported to be responsible
for the ectodomain shedding of TGF- in various ep-
ithelial tissues [13, 24]. In this study, we demonstrate
that LL-37 possesses the ability to increase TACE
activity in NCI-H292 cells and that LL-37-induced
TACE activity could be inhibited by TAPI-1. Alto-
gether, these fndings suggest a crucial role of TACE-
mediated TGF- release in LL-37-induced EGFR
activation and mucin production with TACE-TGF-
-EGFR axis established.
Previous studies have reported that TACE is also
responsible for the generation of AR and HB-EGF by
ectodomain shedding of pro-amphiregulin and pro-
HB-EGF in membrane surface of epithelial cells [13,
14, 16]. AR and HB-EGF are considered potential
EGFR ligands which bind to and activate EGFR.
In the present study, we show that pretreatment of
the cells with corresponding neutralizing antibod-
ies against AR and HB-EGF have no effect on LL-
37-induced EGFR phosphorylation and MUC5AC
mucin production. These results suggest that AR
and HB-EGF are not mediators between TACE
and EGFR activation in LL-37-induced mucin
production.
Importantly, in this study, we examined the speci-
fcity of LL-37-induced responses in NCI-H292 cells.
We demonstrate that a scrambled version of LL-37
(sLL-37) had no effect on TACE and EGFR activa-
tion, as well as MUC5AC mucin production, which
can be induced by LL-37. These results suggest
that LL-37-induced responses in NCI-H292 cells are
peptide-specifc. In addition, as most in vitro exper-
iments were preformed in the absence of serum, we
investigated whether the effects of LL-37 were infu-
enced by serum. We demonstrate that human serum
inhibits LL-37-induced MUC5AC mucin produc-
tion. It has been reported that some special compo-
nents existed in human serum, such as apolipopro-
tein A-1 and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), could
bind to LL-37 and thus suppress its cytotoxicity [18,
19, 25]. Such components may also prevent LL-37
from interacting with NCI-H292 cells by binding to
LL-37 in the presence of human serum. However, de-
spite the potential effect of serum on LL-37-induced
responses, epithelial cells in human airways, which
generally reside in serum-free environments, are not
infuenced by serum and thus may be sensitive to
high concentrations of LL-37 encountered during in-
fammation such as observed in airway surface from
COPD patients.
Some limitations should be noticed in this study.
First, the results presented here were from studies
performed in a cancer cell line (NCI-H292 cells),
which often behave quite differently from primary
airway epitheial cells. Under some circumstances,
the effect of LL-37 may only be observed in well-
differentiated primary cultures [22, 26]. Although
a variety of studies involving mucin induction em-
ployed NCI-H292 cells, studies performed in pri-
mary airway epithelial cells are needed to provide a
more accurate description for the effects of LL-37 on
airway mucin induction. Second, the concentrations
of LL-37 used in this study (2.510 g/mL) might be
supraphysiologic. It is diffcult to determine the ex-
act concentration of LL-37 in the microenvironment
surrounding airway epithelial cells. Several studies
have examined LL-37 levels in human airway, and
the results are variable in magnitude. LL-37 can be
detected at airway mucosal surfaces in healthy indi-
viduals at concentrations of around 25 g/mL, and
is upregulated to approximately 20 g/mL in bron-
choalveolar lavage fuid from children with lung in-
fections [27]. Nevertheless, a recent study reported
Experimental Lung Research
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LL-37 Induces Mucin Production via TACE-TGF--EGFR Pathway 9
elevated LL-37 concentrations in the epithelial lining
fuid (ELF) from COPD patients in the ng/mL range
[10]. Considering the variability in magnitude, a wide
range of LL-37 concentrations should be employed
to further investigate the in vitro effects of LL-37 on
airway mucin production.
In summary, we show that stimulation with LL-37
specifcally induced MUC5AC mucin production via
TACE-TGF--EGFR pathway in airway epithelial
cells. EGFR ligands AR and HB-EGF are not
involved in these LL-37-induced responses. These
fndings are rather important because LL-37 is
closely associated with COPD. The discovery may
help researchers further understand the mechanism
for airway mucus overproduction in COPD.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no
conficts of interest. The authors alone are responsi-
ble for the content and writing of the paper.
This work was supported by Grant 81170041 from
the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
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