| First Author | Kim N | Year | 2012 |
| Journal | J Invest Dermatol | Volume | 132 |
| Issue | 4 | Pages | 1169-76 |
| PubMed ID | 22170489 | Mgi Jnum | J:185246 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5427804 | Doi | 10.1038/jid.2011.404 |
| Citation | Kim N, et al. (2012) Overexpression of cathepsin S induces chronic atopic dermatitis in mice. J Invest Dermatol 132(4):1169-76 |
| abstractText | Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronically relapsing, noncontagious pruritic skin disease with two phases: acute and chronic. Previous studies have shown that the cysteine protease cathepsin S (CTSS) is linked to inflammatory processes, including atherosclerosis and asthma. The possibility that this or other cysteine proteases might cause itching or be part of a classical ligand-receptor signaling cascade has not been previously considered. Recently, CTSS was shown to be a ligand for proteinase-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2), which is associated with itching. In this study, we show that CTSS-overexpressing transgenic (TG) mice spontaneously develop a skin disorder similar to chronic AD. The results of this study suggest that CTSS overexpression triggers PAR-2 expression in dendritic cells (DCs), resulting in the promotion of CD4(+) differentiation, which is involved in major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II expression. In addition, we investigated mast cells and macrophages and found significantly higher mean levels of T helper type 1 (Th1) cell-associated cytokines than T helper type 2 (Th2) cell-associated cytokines in CTSS-overexpressing TG mice. These results suggest that increased PAR-2 expression in DCs as a result of CTSS overexpression induces scratching behavior and Th1 cell-associated cytokine expression, and can trigger chronic AD symptoms. |
