Association of heat shock protein 8 with atopic march in a murine experimental model

PeerJ. 2022 Apr 19:10:e13247. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13247. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Background: Atopic march (AM), a unique characteristic of allergic diseases, refers to the sequential progression of atopic dermatitis (AD) in infants to allergic asthma and allergic rhinitis in children and young adults, respectively. Although there are several studies on AM, the establishment of an AM murine model to expand our understanding of the underlying mechanism and to identify the potential biomarkers is yet to be achieved. In this study, an improved murine model was established by applying a method to minimize skin irritation in inducing AD, and it was used to perform integrated analyses to discover candidate biomarkers.

Methods: To induce atopic dermatitis, 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) was applied to the ear skin once a week, and this was continued for 5 weeks. From the second application of DNCB, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Dp) extract was applied topically 2 days after each DNCB application; this was continued for 4 weeks. Dp sensitization and intranasal challenges were then performed for 4 weeks to develop conditions mimicking AM.

Results: Exacerbated airway inflammation and allergic responses observed in the AM-induced group suggested successful AM development in our model. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and mass spectrometry analysis identified 753 candidate proteins from 124 2-DE spots differentially expressed among the experimental groups. Functional analyses, such as Gene Ontology (GO) annotation and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis were conducted to investigate the relationship among the candidate proteins. Seventy-two GO terms were significant between the two groups; heat shock protein 8 (Hspa8) was found to be included in six of the top 10 GO terms. Hspa8 scored high on the PPI parameters as well.

Conclusion: We established an improved murine model for AM and proposed Hspa8 as a candidate biomarker for AM.

Keywords: Atopic march; Candidate biomarker; Heat shock protein 8; Integrated analysis; Murine model.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Dermatitis, Atopic* / chemically induced
  • Dinitrochlorobenzene / adverse effects
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Heat-Shock Proteins* / metabolism
  • Mice
  • Skin

Substances

  • Dinitrochlorobenzene
  • Heat-Shock Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by research grants (2016-NI67002-00, 2017-NG67001-00, 2017-NG67001-01, 2017-NG67001-02, 2020-NG-009-00, 2020-NG-009-01) from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.