Airway diseases such as
asthma involve increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) contractility and remodelling via enhanced proliferation.
Neurotrophins (NTs) such as
brain-derived neurotrophic factor (
BDNF), well-known in the nervous system, can regulate Ca(2+) signalling, and interact with
cytokines in contributing to airway hyperreactivity. In this study, we determined whether and how
BDNF regulates human ASM cell proliferation in the presence of
inflammation, thus testing its potential role in
airway remodelling. Cells were treated with 10 nM
BDNF, 25 ng/ml tumour
necrosis factor (TNF-α) or
interleukin-13 (IL-13), or 10 ng/ml
platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). Proliferation was measured using CyQuant
dye, with immunoblotting of
cell cycle proteins predicted to change with proliferation. Forty-eight hours of
BDNF enhanced ASM proliferation to ≈ 50% of that by PDGF or
cytokines. Transfection with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting high-affinity
tropomyosin-related
kinase B receptor abolished
BDNF effects on proliferation, whereas low-affinity 75 kD
neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR)
siRNA had no effect. Systematic pharmacologic inhibition of different components of ERK1/2 and PI3K/Akt1 pathways blunted
BDNF or TNF-α-induced proliferation.
BDNF also induced IκB phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of p50 and p65 NF-κB subunits, with electron mobility shift assay confirmation of NF-κB binding to consensus DNA sequence. These results demonstrate that NTs such as
BDNF can enhance human ASM cell proliferation by activating proliferation-specific signalling pathways and a versatile
transcription factor such as NF-κB, which are common to
cytokines and
growth factors involved in
asthma.