Abstract：Objective To study the effect of antimicrobial peptide LL-37 on apoptosis of human nasal epithelial cells, and to explore its potential mechanism. Methods Human nasal mucosa epithelial cells were cultured in vitro. After treatment with different concentration of LL-37, the proliferation of nasal mucosa epithelial cells was detected by CCK-8 method, and the apoptosis of the cells by flow cytometry. Western blot was used to detect the expression levels of apoptosis-related proteins, including activated cysteine-containing aspartate proteolytic enzyme 3 (cleaved caspase-3), activated cysteine-containing aspartate proteolytic enzyme 9 (cleaved caspase-9) and Bax protein. ELISA was employed to detect the secretion of cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-8 (IL-8). Results Compared with the 0 μg/ml group, LL-37 could inhibit the proliferation of nasal epithelial cells in a concentration-dependent manner, induce the apoptosis of nasal epithelial cells, up-regulate the expression levels of cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-9 and Bax protein in nasal epithelial cells, and effectively reduce the secretion of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 in nasal epithelial cells, and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). Conclusions LL-37 can inhibit the proliferation of nasal epithelial cells in vitro and induce the apoptosis of the cells. The possible mechanism of action may be related to up-regulating cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-9 and Bax protein expression levels and promoting the secretion of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8.
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2019, Vol. 26 
