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. 2023 Jul;12(2):211-219.
doi: 10.61186/rbmb.12.2.211.

mRNA Levels of Epithelial and Mesenchymal Markers in Lung Epithelial Cell Lines

Ekaterina Sergeevna Karetnikova  1   2 , Natalia Jarzebska  1   3 , Roman Nikolaevich Rodionov  3 , Elena Rubets  2   3 , Alexander Georgievich Markov  4   2 , Peter Markus Spieth  4   1
Affiliations

mRNA Levels of Epithelial and Mesenchymal Markers in Lung Epithelial Cell Lines

Ekaterina Sergeevna Karetnikova et al. Rep Biochem Mol Biol. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important physiologic process that determines the outcome of lung tissue healing after injury. Stimuli and molecular cascades inducing EMT lead to up-regulation of the mesenchymal-specific genes in the alveolar epithelial cells and to down-regulation of the genes coding for epithelial markers. Alveolar epithelial cell lines are commonly used as in vitro models to study processes occurring in the lung tissue. The aim of this study is to quantify and compare mRNA expression levels of epithelial and mesenchymal markers in a number of lung epithelial cell lines.

Methods: Lung epithelial cell lines L2, R3/1 and RLE-6TN were cultured. Repeated mRNA isolation, reverse transcription, and quantitative PCR with primers to epithelial (E-cadherin, occludin, and ZO-2) and mesenchymal (α-SMA, collagen III, and vimentin) markers were performed.

Results: First, our study revealed a higher level of epithelial transcripts in the RLE-6TN cell line compared to L2 and R3/1 cells. Secondly, we have found simultaneous mRNA expression of both epithelial (E-cadherin, occludin and ZO-2) and mesenchymal (α-SMA, collagen III and vimentin) markers in all cell lines studied.

Conclusions: Our data indicate that at the transcriptional level the L2, R3/1, and RLE-6TN cell lines are at one of the intermediate stages of EMT, which opens new possibilities for the study of EMT on cell lines. Determination of the direction of changes in epithelial and mesenchymal markers will make it possible to establish the factors responsible for both EMT and reverse mesenchymal-epithelial transition.

Keywords: Cell Line; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; Lung; mRNA.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Transcriptional levels (normalized to β-actin) of epithelial markers (E-cadherin, occludin, and ZO-2) in L2, R3/1, and RLE-6TN cell lines. Data are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean and the number of replicates is depicted on the figure. One-way ANOVA; ** p<0.01, *** and **** p<0.001.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Transcriptional levels (normalized to β-actin) of mesenchymal markers (α-SMA, collagen III, and vimentin) in L2, R3/1, and RLE-6TN cell lines. Data are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean and the number of replicates is depicted on the figure. One-way ANOVA; *p<0.05.
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