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KGFR promotes Na+ channel expression in a rat acute lung injury model


B Liu
X Lü
C Qi
S Zheng
M Zhou
J Wang
W Yin

Abstract

Background: Binding of keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) to the KGF receptor (KGFR) plays an important role in the recovery of alveolar epithelial cells from acute lung injury (ALI).
Objectives: To evaluate the effect of gene therapy via adenovirus gene transfer of KGFR on the treatment of ALI.
Methods: Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into four groups: normal controls, injury controls, normal adenovirus transduced group and injury adenovirus transduced group. The ALI model was induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection. Recombinant adenovirus (AdEasy-KGFR) was injected via the tail vein. Expression of the sodium (Na+) channel in rat alveolar type II (ATII) epithelial cells was determined by PCR, immunohistochemistry and immunoelectron microscopy of rat lung tissues.
Results: Gene expression of the Na+ channel and KGFR in ATII cells was higher in the normal adenovirus transduced group than the three other groups; expression of these two genes in the injury adenovirus transduced group was higher than the injury control group. Na+ channel protein expression was lower in the injury adenovirus transduced group but higher than the injury control group.
Conclusions: KGFR over-expression induced Na channel expression could potentially be beneficial for ALI therapy.

Keywords: Keratinocyte growth factor-receptor (KGFR); sodium (Na+) channel; rat model;acute lung injury (ALI); gene therapy


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 1729-0503
print ISSN: 1680-6905