title: Laminin alpha-chain expression and basement membrane formation by MLE-15 respiratory epithelial cells.
abstract: Basement membranes have a critical role in alveolar structure and function. Alveolar type II cells make basement membrane constituents, including laminin, but relatively little is known about the production of basement membrane proteins by murine alveolar type II cells and a convenient system is not available to study basement membrane production by murine alveolar type II cells. To facilitate study of basement membrane production, with particular focus on laminin chains, we examined transformed murine distal respiratory epithelial cells (MLE-15), which have many structural and biochemical features of alveolar type II cells. We found that MLE-15 cells produce laminin-alpha5, a trace amount of laminin-alpha3, laminins-beta1 and -gamma1, type IV collagen, and perlecan. Transforming growth factor-beta1 significantly induces expression of laminin-alpha1. When grown on a fibroblast-embedded collagen gel, MLE-15 cells assemble a basement membrane-like layer containing laminin-alpha5. These findings indicate that MLE-15 cells will be useful in modeling basement membrane production and assembly by alveolar type II cells.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine and Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Nguyet M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Yushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Katsumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mochitate
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Senior
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000166:cytology; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000502:physiology; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D007797:Laminin / Q000235:genetics*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms; D051379:Mice; D011650:Pulmonary Alveoli / Q000166:cytology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D020545:Respiratory Mucosa / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: C501370:Lama4 protein, mouse; D007797:Laminin; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; C102645:laminin alpha 2; C097043:laminin alpha5; C084098:laminin A; C095567:laminin alpha 3