Cigarette smoking reprograms apical junctional complex molecular architecture in the human airway epithelium in vivo.

ABSTRACT: The apical junctional complex (AJC), composed of tight and adherens junctions, maintains epithelial barrier function. Since cigarette smoking and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the major smoking-induced disease, are associated with increased lung epithelial permeability, we hypothesized that smoking alters the transcriptional program regulating airway epithelial AJC integrity. Transcriptome analysis revealed global down-regulation of physiological AJC gene expression in the airway epithelium of healthy smokers (n = 59) compared to nonsmokers (n = 53) in association with changes in canonical epithelial differentiation pathways such as PTEN signaling accompanied by induction of cancer-related AJC components. The overall expression of AJC-related genes was further decreased in

SUBMITTER: Shaykhiev R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3838912 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature