1. Notch Ligand DLL4 Alleviates Allergic Airway Inflammation via Induction of a Homeostatic Regulatory Pathway
- Author
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Bor-Luen Chiang, Wei-Liang Liu, Li-Chung Hsu, Yi-Lien Chen, Hideo Yagita, Chia-I Lien, and Miao-Tzu Huang
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Transgene ,Inflammation ,Mice, Transgenic ,Lymphocyte Activation ,Antibodies ,Article ,Pathogenesis ,03 medical and health sciences ,Mice ,T-Lymphocyte Subsets ,Respiratory Hypersensitivity ,Medicine ,Animals ,Homeostasis ,Receptor ,Multidisciplinary ,Receptors, Notch ,business.industry ,Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ,Membrane Proteins ,Allergens ,Asthma ,Disease Models, Animal ,030104 developmental biology ,Immunology ,cardiovascular system ,Cytokines ,Female ,Signal transduction ,medicine.symptom ,Regulatory Pathway ,business ,Airway ,Biomarkers ,Jagged-1 Protein ,Signal Transduction - Abstract
Notch is a pleiotropic signaling family that has been implicated in pathogenesis of allergic airway diseases; however, the distinct function of individual Notch ligands remains elusive. We investigated whether Notch ligands, Jagged1 and DLL4, exert differential effects in OVA-induced allergic asthma. We found that whilst Jagged1 inhibition mitigated Th2-dominated airway inflammation, blockage of DLL4 aggravated the Th2-mediated asthma phenotypes. Additionally, Jagged1 signaling blockage enhanced IL-17 production and neutrophilic airway infiltration. In vitro, exogenous Jagged1 induced Th2-skewed responses, whereas augmented DLL4 signaling displayed a dual role by promoting expansion of both Tregs and Th17. In vivo, DLL4 blockage impaired Treg differentiation which plausibly resulted in exaggerated asthma phenotypes. On the contrary, administration of DLL4-expressing antigen-presenting cells promoted endogenous Treg expansion and ameliorated the allergic responses. Therefore, whilst Jagged1 induces Th2-skewed inflammation, DLL4 elicits an essential self-regulatory mechanism via Treg-mediated pathway that counterbalances Jagged1-induced Th2 responses and facilitates resolution of the airway inflammation to restore homeostasis. These findings uncover a disparate function of Jagged1 and DLL4 in allergic airway diseases, hinting feasibility of Notch ligand-specific targeting in therapy of allergic airway diseases.
- Published
- 2016