Caveolin-1 Promotes the Imbalance of Th17/Treg in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease by Regulating Hsp70 Expression

Abstract

Objective

To investigate whether the expression of Hsp70 is associated with Cav-1 in promoting the imbalance of Th17/Treg cells in COPD.

Methods

The plasma Cav-1, Hsp70 expression were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The frequencies of circulating Th17, Treg cells and Th17/Treg ratio were determined by flow cytometry. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from subjects were transfected with Cav-1 or control plasmids and Hsp70 plasmid.

Results

We found that Cav-1 expression was lower but the levels of Hsp70 and Th17 cells were higher in COPD than in healthy control (HC). Hsp70 expressions were positively correlated with Cav-1 levels, Th17 cells, and Th17/Treg ratio in COPD but not in HC. Cav-1 over-expression resulted in an increase in Hsp70 and Th17 levels. Suppressing Hsp70 expressing by small interfering RNA (siRNA), the decline of Th17 frequency was observed in Cav-1-overexpressed PBMCs.

Conclusion

Collectively, our results illuminate that Cav-1 contributes to the imbalance of Th17/Treg through potentially regulating Hsp70 expression.

Keywords:

• caveolin-1
• COPD
• Hsp70
• IL-17⁺ Th17 cells
• Foxp3⁺ Treg cells

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

This study was conducted following the Declaration of Helsinki and all applicable national and international ethical guidelines for medical and health research involving human participants.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Dr Chunling Zhang for helpful discussions. We also thank Peng Zhao for her assistance in experimental procedures.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Qingdao Outstanding Health Professional Development Fund; Qingdao 2017, 2018 medical and health research plan project (2017-WJZD061, 2018-WJZD048); Qingdao Science and Technology Project (for Benefiting the People, 19-6-1-27-nsh) and Qingdao Key Disciplines of Traditional Chinese Medicine. This work is also partially supported by Medical and Health Technology Development Program of Shandong Province (No. 2016WS0324) and Qing Dao Expert Workstation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.