Absence of muscarinic cholinergic airway responses in mice deficient in the cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase PDE4D
- *Division of Immunology and Transplantation Biology, Department of Pediatrics, and ‡Division of Reproductive Biology, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305
-
Edited by Joseph A. Beavo, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, and approved March 24, 2000 (received for review February 22, 2000)
Abstract
Muscarinic cholinergic signaling plays an essential role in the control of the normal airway functions and in the development of pulmonary pathologies including asthma. In this paper we demonstrate that the airways of mice deficient in a cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase (PDE4D) are no longer responsive to cholinergic stimulation. Airway hyperreactivity that follows exposure to antigen was also abolished in PDE4D−/− mice, despite an apparently normal lung inflammatory infiltration. The loss of cholinergic responsiveness was specific to the airway, not observed in the heart, and was associated with a loss of signaling through muscarinic receptors with an inability to decrease cAMP accumulation. These findings demonstrate that the PDE4D gene plays an essential role in cAMP homeostasis and cholinergic stimulation of the airway, and in the development of hyperreactivity. In view of the therapeutic potentials of PDE4 inhibitors, our findings provide the rationale for novel strategies that target a single PDE isoenzyme.
Footnotes
-
↵ † G.H. and S.-L.C.J. contributed equally to this work.
-
↵ § To whom reprint requests should be addressed at: Division of Reproductive Biology, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5317. E-mail: marco.conti{at}forsythe.stanford.edu.
-
This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
-
See commentary on page 6245.
- Abbreviations:
- PDE,
- cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase;
- PDE4,
- type 4 cAMP-specific PDE;
- AHR,
- airway hyperreactivity;
- OVA,
- ovalbumin;
- BAL,
- bronchoalveolar lavage;
- i.n.,
- intranasally;
- QNB,
- quinuclidinyl benzilate
- Copyright © 2000, The National Academy of Sciences
