AUTHOR=Carlini Federico , Picard Christophe , Garulli Céline , Piquemal David , Roubertoux Pierre , Chiaroni Jacques , Chanez Pascal , Gras Delphine , Di Cristofaro Julie TITLE=Bronchial Epithelial Cells from Asthmatic Patients Display Less Functional HLA-G Isoform Expression JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=8 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2017.00006 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2017.00006 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=
Not all asthmatic patients adequately respond to current available treatments, such as inhaled corticosteroids or omalizumab®. New treatments will aim to target the bronchial epithelium–immune response interaction using different pathways. HLA-G is involved in immunomodulation and may promote epithelial cell differentiation and proliferation. HLA-G protein has several isoforms generated by alternative splicing that might have differential functionalities. HLA-G protein expression and genetic polymorphisms have been reported to be associated with asthma. Our hypothesis is that bronchial epithelium from asthmatic patients displays less functional HLA-G isoforms. HLA-G transcriptional isoforms were quantified by real-time PCR in human bronchial epithelium cells (HBEC) grown in air–liquid interface culture obtained from five healthy controls (HC), seven patients with mild asthma (MA), and seven patients with severe asthma (SA). They were re-differentiated, and IL-13 exposure was used as a proxy for a pro-inflammatory cytokine. HLA-G protein expression was assessed by western blot analysis. HLA-G allele was typed by direct sequencing. Our results showed that both MA and SA display less functional HLA-G isoforms than HC (