Xie, Weiliang

Submucosal glands are epithelial tubule structures located in between the cartilage rings of the trachea and upper airways that have been identified as a progenitor cell niche. We believe that understanding the developmental processes that regulate the formation of these structures will give us insight into how the progenitor cells are maintained during normal homeostasis and in disease states of submucosal glands. One such example of a diseased state in submucosal glands is cystic fibrosis where submucosal glands are in hypertrophy. In this light, our lab has demonstrated that a transcription factor, Lymphoid enhancing factor-1 (Lef-1), is expressed during the initial stages of airway progenitor cell commitment to form submucosal glands and is required for glands to develop in the developing lung. In addition, several inhibitory and inductive factors have been identified to be involved in regulating Lef-1 transcriptional activity through its promoter. Our lab has also shown that the canonical Wnt signaling pathway can mediate Lef-1 expression. My research focuses on the function of candidate transcription factors that may regulate Lef-1 gene expression during submucosal gland development and the molecular mechanisms responsible for maintaining stem cell niche function in airway glands. I am currently developing transgenic mouse models, knockout mouse models, as well as transcriptional assays to study the regulation of Lef-1 expression during airway submucosal gland morphogenesis.