{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,18]],"date-time":"2026-07-18T17:39:53Z","timestamp":1784396393938,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,30]],"date-time":"2021-04-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1619740800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Nature Science Foundation of China","award":["81670002, 31671188, and 81970033"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81670002, 31671188, and 81970033"]}]},{"name":"Hunan Natural Science Foundation","award":["2019JJ40329 and 2020JJ4776"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2019JJ40329 and 2020JJ4776"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biomolecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Persistent injury and the following improper repair in bronchial epithelial cells are involved in the pathogenesis of airway inflammation and airway remodeling of asthma. E-cadherin (ECAD) has been shown to be involved in airway epithelium injury repair, but its underlying mechanisms to this process is poorly understood. Here, we describe a previously undetected function of ECAD in regulating the balance of EMT and MET during injury repair. Injury in mice and human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs) was induced by successive ozone stress for 4 days at 30 min per day. ECAD overexpression in HBECs was induced by stable transfection. EMT features, transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-\u03b21) secretion, transcriptional repressor Snail expression, and \u03b2-catenin expression were assayed. Ozone exposure and then removal successfully induced airway epithelium injury repair during which EMT and MET occurred. The levels of TGF-\u03b21 secretion and Snail expression increased in EMT process and decreased in MET process. While ECAD overexpression repressed EMT features; enhanced MET features; and decreased TGF-\u03b21 secretion, Snail mRNA level, and \u03b2-catenin protein expression. Moreover, activating \u03b2-catenin blocked the effects of ECAD on EMT, MET and TGF-\u03b21 signaling. Our results demonstrate that ECAD regulates the balance between EMT and MET, by preventing \u03b2-catenin to inhibit TGF\u03b21 and its target genes, and finally facilitates airway epithelia repair.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biom11050669","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,30]],"date-time":"2021-04-30T05:10:55Z","timestamp":1619759455000},"page":"669","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["Modulation of the EMT\/MET Process by E-Cadherin in Airway Epithelia Stress Injury"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Li","family":"Han","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"},{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medicine, Changsha Medical University, Changsha 410219, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Huaiqing","family":"Luo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medicine, Changsha Medical University, Changsha 410219, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenjie","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiang","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Di","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jinmei","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiao","family":"Pi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chi","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiangping","family":"Qu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Huijun","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaoqun","family":"Qin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7865-2565","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yang","family":"Xiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"56","DOI":"10.1097\/MCP.0000000000000441","article-title":"Airway remodeling in asthma: Update on mechanisms and therapeutic approaches","volume":"24","author":"Boulet","year":"2018","journal-title":"Curr. 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