IL-17 signaling in airway smooth muscle cells

在过去的十年中，细胞因子如何影响细胞功能的研究已经彻底改变了我们对免疫系统的看法。特别是，一种名为白细胞介素-17的新细胞因子定义了免疫机制如何运作的新范式。然而，目前还不完全清楚这种细胞因子如何影响我们身体的其他细胞，特别是结构细胞，如气道内的平滑肌。在这项研究计划中，我们建议扩展我们的知识，这种细胞因子，IL-17，如何影响气道平滑肌细胞的基因表达，以及什么是介导基因表达的信号传导因子。我们相信这些研究将使我们能够扩展对IL-17介导的平滑肌功能所涉及的细胞和分子机制的了解，解释其作为细胞功能关键介质的作用，并帮助了解免疫介质对人类生物学的作用。

During the last decade, study of how cytokines affect cellular function has revolutionized our thinking of the immune system. In particular, a new cytokine called interleukin-17 has defined a new paradigm on how immunological mechanisms operate. However, it is not fully understood how this cytokine affects other cells of our body, in particular structural cells such as smooth muscle within the airways. In this research program, we propose to extend our knowledge of how this cytokine, IL-17, affects gene expression in airway smooth muscle cells and what are the signaling factors that mediates gene expression. We believe that these studies will allow us to expand our knowledge of the cellular and molecular mechanism involved in IL-17 mediated smooth muscle function, explain its role as a key mediator of cellular function and help understand the role of immune mediators on human biology.