title: Gene expression profiling in lungs of chronic asthmatic mice treated with galectin-3: downregulation of inflammatory and regulatory genes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Asthma is a disorder characterized by a predominance of Th2 cells and eosinophilic inflammation. Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins act as negative regulators of cytokine signaling. In particular, SOCS1 and SOCS3 play an important role in immune response by controlling the balance between Th1 and Th2 cells. In a previous study, we demonstrated that treatment of chronic asthmatic mice with gene therapy using plasmid encoding galectin-3 (Gal-3) led to an improvement in Th2 allergic inflammation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a microarray approach, this study endeavored to evaluate the changes produced by therapeutic Gal-3 delivered by gene therapy in a well-characterized mouse model of chronic airway inflammation. Results were confirmed by real-time RT-PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identify a set of genes involved in different pathways whose expression is coordinately decreased/increased in mice treated with Gal-3 gene therapy. We report a correlation between Gal-3 treatment and inhibition of SOCS1 and SOCS3 expression in lungs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that negative regulation of SOCS1 and 3 following Gal-3 treatment could be a valuable therapeutic approach in allergic disease.
authors.affiliation: Immunology Department IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz, CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: M Paz
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Zafra
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sastre
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gámez
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lahoz
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: del Pozo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D015536:Down-Regulation; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000494:pharmacology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D008168:Lung / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D037502:Galectin 3