Airway epithelial cells promote in vitro airway smooth muscle cell proliferation by activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

Chronic lung diseases are the leading causes of mortality worldwide with no effective treatments. The proliferation of airway smooth muscle cells plays a very important role in pathological changes, and the reasons for ASMC proliferation are still to be investigated. In recent years, it has been discovered that epithelial cells, as an important type of cell with barrier and immune functions, can promote the proliferation of smooth muscle cells, but the reasons have not been elucidated. In this article, we investigated the impact of AECs on ASMCs utilizing a co-culture system. We found that AECs significantly promoted the proliferation of ASMCs. To explore the mechanisms involved, we performed RNA-seq analysis on Airway Smooth Muscle Cells (ASMCs). It was found that epithelial cells facilitate the proliferation of smooth muscle cells by activating the canonical Wnt signaling pathway in muscle cells. To verify whether other ASMC proliferation pathways play an important role in co-culture. The addition of inhibitors targeting other proliferative pathways in smooth muscle cells did not impact the phenotype observed in co-culture. Due to the Wnt pathway being overlooked in ASMCs, our paper highlights the significance of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in the proliferation of ASMCs. Future pathological research on the proliferation of ASMCs in airway remodeling needs to consider the potential role of the canonical Wnt pathway.