Figure 13.

Model of altered PAR-2 signaling in airway disease. We hypothesize that well-differentiated and highly-ciliated airway epithelium can tolerate brief exposure to fungal or dust mite proteases due to the mainly basolateral expression of PAR-2, which is able to activate inflammatory and other responses only if the epithelium is breached. However, airway remodeling through a variety of disease modifiers can change the polarity of epithelial PAR-2 responses and may sensitize the epithelium to proteases and thus enhance inflammatory responses. Created with Biorender.com.