The regional distribution of different types of influenza receptors in cultured human alveolar epithelial cells and correlation with in vitro infection

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Sialic acid (Sia) linked glycoproteins are the classical influenza receptors for influenza virus haemagglutinin to bind. The distribution of Sia on cell surfaces is one of the determinants of host tropism, and understanding its expression on human cells and tissues is important for understanding influenza pathogenesis. Previous research has shown the differences in apical versus basolateral infection and release of different influenza virus from polarized epithelial cells1 and correlated this with sialic acid distribution in the human respiratory tract. Moreover, mass spectrometric analysis was recently employed to elucidate the glycans present in the tissue in a higher resolution in human lung.2 The objective of this study was to examine in detail the distribution of these Sia-linked glycans at the cellular level by the use of confocal microscopy …