Resolving the conflicts around Par2 opposing roles in regeneration by comparing immune-mediated and toxic-induced injuries.

BACKGROUND: Different factors may lead to hepatitis. Among which are liver inflammation and poisoning. We chose two hepatitis models, typical for these two underlying causes. Thus, we aimed to characterize the role of protease-activated receptor 2 (Par2) in liver regeneration and inflammation to reconcile Par2 conflicting role in many damage models, which sometimes aggravates the induced damage and sometimes alleviates it. METHODS: WT and knockout (Par2KO) mice were injected with concanavalin A (ConA) to induce immune-mediated hepatitis or with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) to elicit direct hepatic damage. To distinguish the immune component from the liver regenerative response, we conducted bone marrow (BM) replacements of WT and Par2KO mice and repeated the damage models. RESULTS: ConA injection caused limited damage in Par2KO mice livers, while in the WT mice severe damage followed by leukocyte infiltration was evident. Reciprocal BM replacement of WT and Par2KO showed that WT BM-reconstituted Par2KO mice displayed marked liver damage, while in Par2KO BM-reconstituted WT mice, the tissue was generally protected. In the CCl4 direct damage model, hepatocytes regenerated in WT mice, whereas Par2KO mice failed to recover. Reciprocal BM replacement did not show significant differences in hepatic regeneration. In Par2KO mice, hepatitis was more apparent, while WT recovered regardless of the BM origin. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that Par2 activation in the immune system aggravates hepatitis and that Par2 activation in the damaged tissue promotes liver regeneration. When we incorporate this finding and revisit the literature reports, we reconciled the conflicts surrounding Par2's role in injury, recovery, and inflammation.

Establishment of a tobacco BY2 cell line devoid of plant-specific xylose and fucose as a platform for the production of biotherapeutic proteins.

Plant-produced glycoproteins contain N-linked glycans with plant-specific residues of ß(1,2)-xylose and core α(1,3)-fucose, which do not exist in mammalian-derived proteins. Although our experience with two enzymes that are used for enzyme replacement therapy does not indicate that the plant sugar residues have deleterious effects, we made a conscious decision to eliminate these moieties from plant-expressed proteins. We knocked out the ß(1,2)-xylosyltranferase (XylT) and the α(1,3)-fucosyltransferase (FucT) genes, using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, in Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Bright Yellow 2 (BY2) cell suspension. In total, we knocked out 14 loci. The knocked-out lines were stable, viable and exhibited a typical BY2 growing rate. Glycan analysis of the endogenous proteins of these lines exhibited N-linked glycans lacking ß(1,2)-xylose and/or α(1,3)-fucose. The knocked-out lines were further transformed successfully with recombinant DNaseI. The expression level and the activity of the recombinant protein were similar to that of the protein produced in the wild-type BY2 cells. The recombinant DNaseI was shown to be totally free from any xylose and/or fucose residues. The glyco-engineered BY2 lines provide a valuable platform for producing potent biopharmaceutical products. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the power of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology for multiplex gene editing in BY2 cells.