Expression of three members of the TNF-R family of receptors (4-1BB, lymphotoxin-beta receptor, and Fas) in human lung

Abstract

Receptors belonging to the tumour necrosis factor receptor (TNF-R) superfamily are implicated in a variety of important biological processes. Although messenger ribonucleic acid coding for many of these receptors has been detected in lung, little is known about their expression in this organ. In this study, immunohistochemical techniques were used to evaluate the expression of three receptors of this family (4-1BB, lymphotoxin-beta receptor (LTbeta-R), and Fas) in normal human lung, lung carcinomas and by tuberculous and sarcoid granulomas. The 4-1BB receptor was uniformly expressed by endothelial cells of small vessels and by basal epithelial cells within pseudostratified bronchial epithelium. LTbeta-R expression by parenchymal cells was limited to those of epithelial origin (bronchial and bronchiolar epithelium, hyperplastic alveolar epithelium and lung carcinomas). Fas was present on both fibroblasts and epithelial cells (bronchial and alveolar epithelium and most, but not all, carcinomas), but not on endothelial cells. A subpopulation of T-lymphocytes expressed these receptors, but only Fas was detected on normal alveolar macrophages and epithelioid cells. Thus, 4-1BB, LTbeta-R, and Fas have characteristic and only partially overlapping patterns of expression in the lung. The findings should facilitate further evaluation of their role in lung homeostasis and pathology.

Targeting the Lymphotoxin-β Receptor with Agonist Antibodies as a Potential Cancer Therapy

“…The images show that LThR expression is not restricted to the tumor compartments but can also be detected in the normal breast ductal epithelial cells as well as in the normal colon epithelium. These observations were in agreement with a previous study showing expression of LThR in lung carcinomas and in hyperplastic bronchial lining cells (30). Based on these findings, the high frequency of LThR expression in a broad range of solid tumors suggests tumors of diverse tissue origins and histotypes as potential additional candidates for CBE11 therapy.…”

Visualization of Lymphotoxin-β and Lymphotoxin-β Receptor Expression in Mouse Embryos

“…Direct comparison by FACS of fetal and adult intestines confirmed that LT␤R expression is higher in the fetus and begins to decrease at birth. This observation is interesting since many human breast and colorectal carcinomas are LT␤R bright by immunohistochemical staining while much of the surrounding nontransformed stromal tissue is receptor dull (J. Browning, V. Bailly, and S. Violette, unpublished data) and a similar observation was reported for lung carcinomas (44). Therefore, in some epithelial layers, surface LT␤R is displayed during development and perhaps some carcinomas recapitulate ontology by reinstating the higher fetal level of surface expression.…”

A multiple marker analysis of apoptosis-associated protein expression in non-small cell lung cancer in a Chinese population

“…We investigated five apoptosis-associated proteins in NSCLC tissues, namely bcl-2, caspase-3, fas, fasL, and survivin. According to data updates, these proteins may be important for the balance of cell proliferation and cell death to maintain cellular homeostasis in normal lung tissues [24][25][26][27][28]. But their actual roles in can-236 236 236 236 236 In the current study, we found bcl-2, which was originally cloned from the t(14;18) translocation breakpoint found in follicular B-cell lymphomas, to be related to large tumor size in NSCLC.…”