Transforming Growth Factor-β/Smad Signaling Pathway And Its Methylation In Airway Disease

Objective:Airway diseases including airway tumor and inflammatory, are a kind of common diseases. The mechanism of these diseases is unclear. It relates to many factors,and the role of environmental factors has attracted more and more attention. TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway plays an important role in the occurrence and development of airway diseases. To provide a basis for further research in the pathogenesis of airway inflammatory diseases such as sinusitis and nasal polyps, related research on transforming growth factor β/Smad signaling pathway and its methylation in Airway disease are reviewed in this paper.Method:Epigenomics, DNA Methylation, Respiratory Tract Diseases and Transforming Growth Factor beta were key words. To search related literatures during 2001 to 2014 using CNKI, Wan Fang, PubMed and other retrieval systems, and then to analyze and summarize them.Results:With high prevalence, airway diseases are harm to people’s health and life safety seriously. TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway plays an important role in the occurrence and development of airway diseases, and is considered a key factor of mucosal inflammation and tissue remodeling in chronic sinusitis and nasal polyp. The expression of TGF-β/ Smad signaling pathway related genes in laryngeal carcinoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, nasal polyps and other airway diseases were significantly different, but the specific pathogenesis is not clear. DNA methylation is one of the most studied and clearly epigenetic mechanism. Numerous studies have confirmed that the incidence of airway diseases(asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sinusitis, lung cancer) are related with environmental factors such as smoking and environmental pollution. In airway hyperresponsiveness, long-term exposure to house dust mites could cause TGF-beta signaling pathways epigenetic changes.Conclusion:The incidence of airway diseases are related with environmental factors, and it must be associated with epigenetics inevitably. The inordinated expression of TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway in airway inflammatory diseases such as sinusitis and nasal polyps may be related to gene methylation changes. It needs further study.