Gene expression profiles of Calu-3 lung epithelial cells after neutrophil transmigration

Injury to the epithelium is integral to the pathogenesis of many inflammatory lung diseases, and epithelial repair is a critical determinant of clinical outcome. However, the signaling pathways regulating such repair are incompletely understood. Herein, we used in vitro and in vivo models to define these pathways. Human neutrophils were induced to transmigrate across monolayers of human lung epithelial cells in the physiologic basolateral-to-apical direction to a gradient of fMLP. Control wells were treated with fMLP alone. Indicated wells were pretreated with an anti-CD47 blocking antibody, which exacerbates epithelial injury. This allowed study of the neutrophil contribution not only to the initial epithelial injury, but also to its repair, as manifest by restoration of transepithelial resistance (TER) and re-epithelialization of the denuded epithelium. Microarray analysis of epithelial gene expression revealed that neutrophil transmigration activated β-catenin signaling, and this was verified by real time PCR, nuclear translocation of β-catenin, and TOPFlash reporter activity. This pathway represents a potential therapeutic target to accelerate physiologic recovery in inflammatory lung diseases. Total of 20 samples: Calu-3 cells that were untreated, treated with fMLP, treated with fMLP and neutrophil transmigration, and treated with anti-CD47 antibodies, fMLP, and neutrophil transmigration; cDNA was pooled from n=3 experiments; No biological replicates