Alveolar macrophages (AMs) are specialized tissue-resident macrophages that orchestrate the immune responses to inhaled pathogens and maintain organ homeostasis of the lung. Dysregulation of AMs is associated with allergic inflammation and asthma. A research team led by Prof. Taro Kawai (NAIST) has discovered that immature AMs do not prevent house dust mite induced allergic inflammation in the lungs. We examined the role of a phosphoinositide kinase PIKfyve in AMs development and function. Mice with conditionally deleted PIKfyve in macrophages show alteration of AM populations and display severe lung inflammation and allergic asthma accompanied by infiltration of eosinophils and lymphoid cells after exposure to house dust mite extract. These findings provide evidence that inositol lipid metabolism is one of the therapeutic targets for asthma and allergic inflammatory disease.

【Paper title and author(s)】

• Title: Deletion of PIKfyve alters alveolar macrophage populations and exacerbates allergic inflammation in mice
• Author(s): Takumi Kawasaki, Kosuke Ito, Haruhiko Miyata, Shizuo Akira and Taro Kawai
• Publication: The EMBO Journal May 22, 2017 on line