Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)


Print Feedback Export to File
2664239 
Journal Article 
Review 
Epithelial barrier function: At the front line of asthma immunology and allergic airway inflammation 
Georas, SN; Rezaee, F 
2014 
Yes 
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
ISSN: 0091-6749
EISSN: 1097-6825 
134 
3 
509-520 
English 
25085341 
WOS:000341372400002 
Airway epithelial cells form a barrier to the outside world and are at the front line of mucosal immunity. Epithelial apical junctional complexes are multiprotein subunits that promote cell-cell adhesion and barrier integrity. Recent studies in the skin and gastrointestinal tract suggest that disruption of cell-cell junctions is required to initiate epithelial immune responses, but how this applies to mucosal immunity in the lung is not clear. Increasing evidence indicates that defective epithelial barrier function is a feature of airway inflammation in asthmatic patients. One challenge in this area is that barrier function and junctional integrity are difficult to study in the intact lung, but innovative approaches should provide new knowledge in this area in the near future. In this article we review the structure and function of epithelial apical junctional complexes, emphasizing how regulation of the epithelial barrier affects innate and adaptive immunity. We discuss why defective epithelial barrier function might be linked to T(H)2 polarization in asthmatic patients and propose a rheostat model of barrier dysfunction that implicates the size of inhaled allergen particles as an important factor influencing adaptive immunity. 
Airway epithelium; asthma; barrier defect; mucosal immunity; tight junction; adherens junction; innate immunity; allergy