CD48 Is Critically Involved in Allergic Eosinophilic Airway Inflammation
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CD48 Is Critically Involved in Allergic Eosinophilic Airway Inflammation Ariel Munitz,1 Ido Bachelet,1 Fred D. Finkelman,2 Marc E. Rothenberg,3 and Francesca Levi-Schaffer1,4 1Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; 2Department of Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio; 3Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio; and 4David R. Bloom Center for Pharmacology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel Rationale: Despite ongoing research, the molecular mechanisms con- trolling asthma are still elusive. CD48 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol- AT A GLANCE COMMENTARY anchored protein involved in lymphocyte adhesion, activation, and costimulation. Although CD48 is widely expressed on hematopoi- Scientific Knowledge on the Subject etic cells and commonly studied in the context of natural killer and CD48 is an activation molecule able to facilitate various cytotoxic T cell functions, its role in helper T cell type 2 settings cellular activities. Its role in asthma is unknown. has not been examined. Objectives: To evaluate the expression and function of CD48, CD2, and 2B4 in a murine model of allergic eosinophilic airway inflammation. What This Study Adds to the Field Methods: Allergic eosinophilic airway inflammation was induced by CD48 is upregulated in experimental asthma. Anti-CD48– ovalbumin (OVA)–alum sensitization and intranasal inoculation of based therapies may be useful for asthma and perhaps OVA or, alternatively, by repeated intranasal inoculation of Aspergil- various allergic diseases. lus fumigatus antigen in wild-type, STAT (signal transducer and acti- vator of transcription)-6–deficient, and IL-4/IL-13–deficient BALB/c mice. Gene profiling of whole lungs was performed, followed by Northern blot and flow cytometric analysis. Anti-CD48, -CD2, and -2B4 antibodies were administered before OVA challenge and cyto- the asthmatic lung leads to structural changes, which in turn exacer- kine expression and histology were assessed. bate the hyperresponsiveness observed in this disease (4). Measurements and Main Results: Microarray data analysis demon- Experimentation in the study of asthma has provided a ratio- strated upregulation of CD48 in the lungs of OVA-challenged mice. nale for the development of multiple therapeutic agents that Allergen-induced CD48 expression was independent of STAT-6, interfere with specific inflammatory pathways (5–8). However, IL-13, and IL-4. Neutralization of CD48 in allergen-challenged mice development of the disease phenotype is likely related to the abrogated bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and lung inflammation. interplay of a large number of pathways. Genome searches have Neutralization of CD2 inhibited the inflammatory response to a revealed that at least 19 genes contribute to asthma susceptibility lesser extent and neutralization of 2B4 had no effect. and microarray studies of asthmatic tissue revealed the involve- Conclusions: Our results suggest that CD48 is critically involved in ment of hundreds of genes (3). Moreover, microarray analysis allergic eosinophilic airway inflammation. As such, CD48 may pro- has demonstrated increased expression of 291 genes commonly vide a new potential target for the suppression of asthma. associated with murine disease pathogenesis rather than a par- ticular mode of disease induction (7). Therefore, a central issue Keywords: asthma; CD48; CD2; 2B4 still under investigation is the identification of fundamental molecules/pathways that govern the processes underlying in- Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways charac- flammation in asthma. terized by airflow obstruction, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, CD48 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein and airway inflammation (1–3). belonging to the CD2 subfamily (9). It is expressed mainly on Studies of airway inflammation in the lungs of individuals with hematopoietic cells and exists in both membrane-associated and asthma have revealed the accumulation of a large number of in- soluble forms (9, 10). It is a low-affinity ligand for CD2 and is flammatory cells, increased mucus production and submucosal mu- implicated as an important costimulatory molecule in lympho- cus gland hyperplasia/metaplasia, epithelial shedding, and smooth cyte activation (11, 12). Interestingly, whereas CD2-deficient muscle cell hypertrophy (3, 4). Notably, chronic inflammation of mice display normal T cell development and function, CD48- deficient mice exhibit significant defects in CD4ϩ T cell activation (13, 14), indicating a broad immunologic role for CD48. Indeed, CD48 has been described as facilitating cell adhesion (15, 16), (Received in original form May 24, 2006; accepted in final form February 7, 2007 ) innate responses to bacterial infection (17–19), and graft rejec- Supported in part by grants from the Aimwell Charitable Trust UK, by Israel Science tion (20–23). Foundation grant 213/05 (F.L.-S.), and by NIH grants R01 AI42242 (M.E.R.), R01 In addition, CD48 is a high-affinity ligand for 2B4 (24). CD48– AI45898 (M.E.R.), and P01 HL-076383-01 (M.E.R. and F.D.F.). 2B4 interactions can modulate T cell, B cell, and natural killer Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Francesca (NK) cell functions and cross-talk (25–27). Studies with 2B4 Levi-Schaffer, Ph.D., Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Faculty gene–targeted mice demonstrated that 2B4–CD48 interactions of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O. Box 12065, Jerusalem 91120, are essential for expansion and activation of murine NK cells Israel. E-mail: [email protected] (26). The absence of functional 2B4–CD48 interactions impairs This article has an online supplement, which is accessible from this issue’s table NK cell cytotoxic response and IFN-␥ release on tumor target of contents at www.atsjournals.org exposure (27). Furthermore, activated NK cells significantly Am J Respir Crit Care Med Vol 175. pp 911–918, 2007 ϩ ϩ Originally Published in Press as DOI: 10.1164/rccm.200605-695OC on February 8, 2007 increase the CD3-dependent proliferation of CD8 and CD4 Internet address: www.atsjournals.org T cells by a 2B4–CD48-dependent mechanism (25). 912 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE VOL 175 2007 The contribution of CD48 has not been explored in helper volume of 100 l of Hanks’ balanced salt solution supplemented with T cell type 2 (Th2) settings. Thus, the applicability of CD48- 0.1% bovine serum albumin and 0.02% sodium azide for 30 minutes dependent stimulatory pathways that have been investigated in on ice. Thereafter, differential cell populations were electronically gated Th1 settings to allergy is not obvious. and assessed for expression of CD48, CD2, or 2B4. See the online supplement for additional detail on the method. In this study, we investigated the contribution of CD48 and its ligands to allergic eosinophilic airway inflammation. We re- Mediator Assessment port that CD48 is upregulated in two murine models of allergic Cytokines were measured with kits purchased from the following eosinophilic airway inflammation (7). Furthermore, experiments sources: IL-5 (eBioscience), IL-4 and IL-13 (BioLegend), and eotaxin-2 with anti-CD48, anti-CD2, and anti-2B4 neutralizing monoclonal and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-␣ (R&D Systems). ELISA procedures antibodies (mAbs) demonstrate that CD48 is critically involved were performed according to the manufacturers’ instructions. Lower in allergic eosinophilic airway inflammation. detection limits for the various assays were as follows: 7.8, 2, 16, 32, and 16 pg/ml, respectively. METHODS Quantification of Lung Inflammation Reagents and Chemicals Histological studies were performed as follows: the right upper lobe of All chemicals used in this study were purchased from Sigma (Rehovot, saline or allergen-challenged lungs was fixed in 3.7% paraformaldehyde, Israel) and were of the best available grade. embedded in paraffin, deparaffinized, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin or with periodic acid–Schiff reagent. Antibodies See the online supplement for additional detail on the calculation Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated anti-CCR3 (CC chemo- method. kine receptor-3) was obtained from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN). Anti-CD3–allophycocyanin (APC), anti-VLA (very late activa- Statistical Analysis tion antigen)-4–phycoerythrin (PE) (clone DX5), anti-CD4–PE/cyanine Statistical significance was calculated by parametric analysis (analysis 5 (Cy5), anti-rat IgG–PE, anti-rat IgG–FITC, streptavidin–PE, and of variance, followed by the Tukey-Kramer post hoc test or Student streptavidin–Cy5 were all purchased from eBioscience (San Diego, t test). Values were considered significant at p Ͻ 0.05 (32). CA). Anti-B220–APC, anti-CD2, and anti-CD48–PE were obtained from BioLegend (San Diego, CA). Anti-2B4 mAb (a kind gift from RESULTS V. Kumar, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL) and anti-CD2 were conjugated to biotin according to a standard protocol (28). DNA Microarray Analysis Identifies CD48 as an Allergen- induced Gene in Allergic Eosinophilic Airway Inflammation Mice All experiments involving animals and primary animal cells were ap- Quantitative microarray analysis revealed that CD48, but not proved by the institutional animal experimentation ethics committee. CD2 or 2B4, mRNA expression was significantly increased in