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Salmeterol attenuates the inflammatory response in asthma and decreases the pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion of dendritic cells

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 9, pages 267–275 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Salmeterol is a long-acting β2-agonist that activates adenylate cyclase, causing long-lasting bronchodilation and has been used for many years to control asthma. However, little information is available about the immunoregulatory effects of salmeterol. We found that salmeterol decreases the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in a model of allergen-challenged mice that expressed tumor-necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1 and interleukin-6. Dendritic cells (DCs) are antigen-presenting cells and act as sentinels in the airway. We found that salmeterol (10−5 mol/l) reduced the inflammation caused by lipopolysaccharide (0.1 µg/ml) in activated murine bone marrow-derived DCs. Moreover, western blots demonstrated that this protective effect was mediated partially by inhibiting signaling through the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways and dramatically decreased levels of p-ERK. We suggest that salmeterol regulates the inflammation of allergen-induced asthma by modulating DCs. In conclusion, we provide evidence that DCs are the target immune cells responsible for the action of salmeterol against asthma.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai research project topics (2006073) and the National Key Basic Research Program of China (2007CB512403).

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Author notes

  1. Zhenli Hu, Ruohua Chen and Zhijian Cai: These authors contributed equally to this study.

  2. Dr C Bai, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Changhai Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. E-mail: bc7878@sohu.com

  3. Dr JL Wang, Institute of Immunology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China. E-mail: jlwang@zju.edu.cn

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Changhai Hospital, the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Zhenli Hu, Xiahui Ge, Tianyi Zhu & Chong Bai

  2. Department of VIP Clinical, Changhai Hospital, the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Ruohua Chen

  3. Institute of Immunology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Zhijian Cai, Lei Yu, Yang Fei, Lixia Weng & Jianli Wang

  4. Department of First Biliary Surgery, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgical Hospital & Institute, The Second Military University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    Jinghan Wang

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Hu, Z., Chen, R., Cai, Z. et al. Salmeterol attenuates the inflammatory response in asthma and decreases the pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion of dendritic cells. Cell Mol Immunol 9, 267–275 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2011.56

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