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Relationship: 961
Title
Decreased ciliated cell apoptosis leads to Occurrence, Transdifferentiation of ciliated epithelial cells
Upstream event
Downstream event
AOPs Referencing Relationship
Taxonomic Applicability
Sex Applicability
| Sex | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Unspecific | Low |
Life Stage Applicability
| Term | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Adult | Low |
Downstream of EGFR activation, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) signaling elicits an anti-apoptotic response in ciliated cells, favoring their survival (Tyner et al., 2006). Subsequent stimulation by proinflammatory stimuli such as the Th2 cytokines interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13 then promotes transdifferentiation of ciliated cells into goblet cells, thereby increasing the number of goblet cells (“second hit hypothesis”) (Curran and Cohn, 2010).
| ID | Experimental Design | Species | Upstream Observation | Downstream Observation | Citation (first author, year) | Notes |
|---|
| Title | First Author | Biological Plausibility |
Dose Concordance |
Temporal Concordance |
Incidence Concordance |
|---|
Biological Plausibility
Dose Concordance Evidence
Temporal Concordance Evidence
Incidence Concordance Evidence
Uncertainties and Inconsistencies
Experimental evidence in support of this KER is not in agreement with other studies, which show that ciliated cells do not give rise to goblet cells during airway remodeling in rodents and humans, and with studies that provide evidence for increased goblet cell proliferation rather than transdifferentiation of ciliated cells (Lumsden et al., 1984; Casalino-Matsuda et al., 2006; Hays et al., 2006; Tesfaigzi et al., 2004; Taniguchi et al., 2001).
Unknown
There is no considerable quantitative understanding of the linkage yet.
Response-response Relationship
Treatment of mouse tracheal epithelial cells, differentiated at the air-liquid interface, with IL-13 (100 ng/mL for 5 days) to stimulate goblet cell formation and subsequently with PD153035 (0.3 μM for 3 days) to block EGFR activation did have no significant effect on the rate of apoptosis in Muc5ac-positive cells, whereas the ciliated epithelial cells exhibited significant caspase-positive staining (increased by ca. 10%) (Tyner et al., 2006).
Time-scale
Treatment of mouse tracheal epithelial cells, differentiated at the air-liquid interface, with IL-13 (100 ng/mL for 5 days) to stimulate goblet cell formation gave rise to a transitional cell population. These transitional cells were most prominent early (1–2 days) after initiation of IL-13 treatment, while mature goblet cells without cilia were most abundant at later times (5 days) after treatment. The same observation of transitional cells showing both goblet and ciliated cell marker expression was made in airway epithelial cells cultured from COPD patients and from otherwise healthy lung transplant donors in response to IL-13, within the first day of IL-13 treatment (Tyner et al., 2006).
Known Feedforward/Feedback loops influencing this KER
Unknown
The studies that support decreased epithelial cell apoptosis resulting in transdifferentiation were performed in mice. Some data from ex vivo lung samples indicate applicability to humans.