Does Vitamin D Work Synergistically with Anti-Asthmatic Drugs in Airway Remodeling?

Vitamin D is commonly known for its properties of airway remodeling inhibition. Due to this, we decided to analyze the action of calcitriol with anti-asthmatic drugs in airway remodeling. The HFL1 cell line was treated with calcitriol, beclomethasone 17-propionate, montelukast sodium, LTD4 and TGF-β in different combinations. Real-time PCR was used to analyzed the expression of ACTA2, CDH-1, Vimentin, ADAM33, MMP-9 and CysLTR1 on the mRNA level, whereas Western blot was used to analyze gene expression on the protein level. One-way analysis variants, the Kruskal-Wallis test, Student's t -test or Welch's t -test were used for statistical analysis. Concerning the results, pre-treatment with calcitriol increased the inhibitory effect of beclomethasone 17-propionate and montelukast sodium on the expression of ACTA2 ( p = 0.0072), Vimentin ( p = 0.0002) and CysLTR1 ( p = 0.0204), and 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 had an influence on the effects of beclomethasone 17-propionate and montelukast sodium and of CDH1 expression ( p = 0.0076). On the protein level, pre-treatment with calcitriol with beclomethasone 17-propionate and montelukast sodium treatment decreased ACTA2 expression in comparison to the LT (LTD4 and TGF-β) control group ( p = 0.0191). Hence, our study not only confirms that vitamin D may inhibit airway remodeling, but also shows that vitamin D has a synergistic effect with anti-asthmatic drugs.