Who's Who at the Arizona Respiratory Center

Activities

We use unique primary tissue culture models of lung epithelial cells to study the cellular and tissue function of the lung epithelium. The conducting airway epithelium is an active cellular layer made up of a variety of cell types that is typified by ciliated airway epithelial cells that contribute to mucociliary clearance. The epithelial layer that lines the alveoli of the distal mammalian lung is made up of two distinct cell types, alveolar type I (AT1) and alveolar type II (AT2) cells. Physiological functions for AT1 cells include the primary site of gas exchange and for AT2 cells include the productions of critical secretions that keep the lung from collapsing. Just as importantly, AT2 cells serve as "stem cells" that divide, migrate and differentiate to reform the AT1/AT2 epithelial layer following insult or injury. Important to studies in our lab, lung epithelial cells also provide innate immune function through secretion of inflammatory effectors and their epithelial "barrier" function.

Our current studies include three foci: 1) Host/Pathogen interactions; 2) Intercellular communication; and 3) Re-establishment of functional airway epithelium. In the host/pathogen interaction studies, we are using a ciliated cell culture model to better understand early events in airway infection by the primary colonizing bacteria from the Bordetellae. This includes elucidation of bacterial and host proteins that contribute to ciliary binding, and innate host defense activated by this early host/pathogen interaction. In the intercellular communication studies we are elucidating the molecular mechanisms that allow for second messenger signaling within and between airway epithelial cells in both the conducting and the alveolar airway. In the third foci, we are studying extracellular matrix and neighboring cell contributions to the re-establishment of functional airway epithelium following large scale wounding or local disruption by toxicants and/or toxins.

Selected Publications

• To search for Manuscripts, click PubMed/Boitano
• Groathouse, N., Heinzen, R.A. and S. Boitano. Ca 2+ transients in ciliated tracheal epithelial cells after binding of Bordetella bronchiseptica are dependent on a functional BvgAS. Infection and Immunity 71: 7208-7210, December, 2003
• Isakson, B.E., Seedorf, G.J., Lubman, R., Evans, W.H. and S. Boitano. Cell-Cell communication in heterocellular cultures of alveolar epithelial cells. American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, 29: 552-561, 2003.
• Boitano, S. and W.H. Evans. Gap junction peptides can serve as specific blockers to gap junctional communication. American Journal of Physiology: Lung, Cellular and Molecular Physiology. 279(4): L623 - L630, 2000.

Funding Sources

• National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
• American Lung Association
• Environmental Protection Agency