Abstract： To investigate whether the mucin 1 (MUC1) induced by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection can prevent RSV from accessing and infecting airway epithelial cells thereby inhibiting the inflammatory response. We transfected two kinds of airway epithelial cells (A549 and HEp-2) with eukaryotic expression vector of MUC1 — pcDNA3.1-MUC1 to overexpress MUC1, and then use RSV to infect the MUC1-overexpressed airway epithelial cells and normal airway epithelial cells transfected with pcDNA3.1, and finally compare the RSV titer in two kinds of cells. Our results showed that RSV infected the two kinds of airway epithelial cells in vitro successfully, and the plaque in HEp-2 cells caused by RSV is easier to count than in A549 cells. It was found that there was no significant difference of RSV titer between the airway epithelial cells transfected with pcDNA3.1-MUC1 and control plasmid pcDNA3.1 in two kinds of airway epithelial cells. We conclude that overexpressed MUC1 in airway epithelial cells can not prevent RSV from accessing and infecting airway epithelial cells, suggesting that MUC1 inhibits RSV-induced inflammation is not through its physical barrier function.
