Novel mediators of eicosanoid and epithelial nitric oxide production in asthma

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease. Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is a distinct syndrome that occurs in 30-50% of asthmatics and is characterized by high levels of pro-inflammatory eicosanoids. We identified genes differentially expressed in the airways of asthmatics with EIB relative to asthmatics without EIB. Genes related to epithelial repair and mast cell infiltration including beta-tryptase and carboxypeptidase A3 were upregulated by exercise challenge in the asthma group with EIB. We confirmed that two novel mediators trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) and transglutaminase 2 (TGM2) have increased expression in airways cells and secreted product in the airways. In vitro studies indicate that 1) TFF3 induces nitric oxide synthase in airway epithelial cells from asthmatics and 2) TGM2 augments the enzymatic activity of secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) group X, an enzyme recently been implicated in asthma pathogenesis. Since PLA2 serves as the first rate-limiting step leading to eicosanoid generation, these results suggest that TGM2 may be a key initiator of the airway inflammatory cascade in asthma.

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Hallstrand TS, Wurfel MM, Lai Y, Ni Z, Gelb MH, Altemeier WA, Beyer RP, Aitken ML, Henderson WR