%0 Journal Article %T Aldose Reductase Inhibition Prevents Metaplasia of Airway Epithelial Cells %A Umesh C. S. Yadav %A Leopoldo Aguilera-Aguirre %A Kota V. Ramana %A Istvan Boldogh %A Satish K. Srivastava %J PLOS ONE %D 2012 %I Public Library of Science (PLoS) %R 10.1371/journal.pone.0014440 %X Goblet cell metaplasia that causes mucus hypersecretion and obstruction in the airway lumen could be life threatening in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Inflammatory cytokines such as IL-13 mediate the transformation of airway ciliary epithelial cells to mucin-secreting goblet cells in acute as well as chronic airway inflammatory diseases. However, no effective and specific pharmacologic treatment is currently available. Here, we investigated the mechanisms by which aldose reductase (AR) regulates the mucus cell metaplasia in vitro and in vivo. %U http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014440