Buckley Stephen T, Ehrhardt Carsten
School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
J Biomed Biotechnol. 2010;2010:917108. doi: 10.1155/2010/917108. Epub 2010 Jan 19.
The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily of cell surface molecules. As a pattern-recognition receptor capable of binding a diverse range of ligands, it is typically expressed at low levels under normal physiological conditions in the majority of tissues. In contrast, the lung exhibits high basal level expression of RAGE localised primarily in alveolar type I (ATI) cells, suggesting a potentially important role for the receptor in maintaining lung homeostasis. Indeed, disruption of RAGE levels has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of pulmonary disorders including cancer and fibrosis. Furthermore, its soluble isoforms, sRAGE, which act as decoy receptors, have been shown to be a useful marker of ATI cell injury. Whilst RAGE undoubtedly plays an important role in the biology of the lung, it remains unclear as to the exact nature of this contribution under both physiological and pathological conditions.
晚期糖基化终末产物受体（RAGE）是细胞表面分子免疫球蛋白超家族的成员。作为一种能够结合多种配体的模式识别受体，在大多数组织的正常生理条件下，它通常以低水平表达。相比之下，肺中RAGE的基础表达水平较高，主要定位于I型肺泡（ATI）细胞，这表明该受体在维持肺内稳态方面可能具有重要作用。事实上，RAGE水平的破坏与包括癌症和纤维化在内的多种肺部疾病的发病机制有关。此外，其可溶性异构体sRAGE作为诱饵受体，已被证明是ATI细胞损伤的有用标志物。虽然RAGE无疑在肺生物学中发挥重要作用，但在生理和病理条件下这种作用的确切性质仍不清楚。
