Sting regulates epithelial mesenchymal transition induced in chronic allergic lung inflammation

The transcription factor (TF) β-catenin is an evolutionarily conserved Armadillo repeat protein that plays a role in airway remodeling and epithelia mesenchymal transition (EMT) in asthma and animal models of asthma. The TF snail represses epithelial gene expression, thereby promoting EMT. Since chronic exposure to allergenic extracts induces DNA damage in the lung genome of sensitized mice, we hypothesized that the canonical cytosolic DNA-sensor pathway protein Sting may modulate the expression of β-catenin and Snail, and regulate EMT.