the human airway epithelial basal cell transcriptome人类的气道上皮基底细胞转录组.pdfVIP

The Human Airway Epithelial Basal Cell Transcriptome 1. 1. 1. 1 1 Neil R. Hackett , Renat Shaykhiev , Matthew S. Walters , Rui Wang , Rachel K. Zwick , Barbara 1 1 1 1,2 Ferris , Bradley Witover , Jacqueline Salit , Ronald G. Crystal * 1 Department of Genetic Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, United States of America, 2 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, United States of America Abstract Background: The human airway epithelium consists of 4 major cell types: ciliated, secretory, columnar and basal cells. During natural turnover and in response to injury, the airway basal cells function as stem/progenitor cells for the other airway cell types. The objective of this study is to better understand human airway epithelial basal cell biology by defining the gene expression signature of this cell population. Methodology/Principal Findings: Bronchial brushing was used to obtain airway epithelium from healthy nonsmokers. Microarrays were used to assess the transcriptome of basal cells purified from the airway epithelium in comparison to the transcriptome of the differentiated airway epithelium. This analysis identified the ‘‘human airway basal cell signature’’ as 1,161 unique genes with .5-fold higher expression level in basal cells compared to differentiated epithelium. The basal cell signature was suppressed when the basal cells differentiated into a ciliated airway epithelium in vitro. The basal cell signature