Aquaporin 3 (AQP3) is an aquaglyceroporin that transports water and glycerol and is expressed in the epidermis, among other epithelial tissues. We have recently shown that there is an association between this glycerol channel and phospholipase D2 (PLD2) in caveolin-rich membrane microdomains. While PLD2 is able to hydrolyze membrane phospholipids to generate phosphatidic acid, this enzyme also catalyzes, in the presence of primary alcohols, a transphosphatidylation reaction to produce a phosphatidylalcohol. We have proposed that AQP3 associated with PLD2 provides the physiological primary alcohol glycerol to PLD2 for use in the transphosphatidylation reaction to generate phosphatidylglycerol (PG). Further, we have proposed that PG functions as a signaling molecule to mediate early epidermal keratinocyte differentiation, and manipulation of this signaling module inhibits keratinocyte proliferation and enhances differentiation. In contrast, other investigators have suggested a proliferative role for AQP3 in keratinocytes. In addition, AQP3 knockout mice exhibit an epidermal phenotype, characterized by dry skin, decreased elasticity and delayed barrier repair and wound healing, which can be corrected by glycerol but not other humectants. AQP3 levels have also been found to be altered in human skin diseases. In this article the evidence supporting a role for AQP3 in the epidermis will be discussed.

Aquaporin-3 (AQP3) is a water and glycerol channel expressed in epidermal keratinocytes. Despite many studies, controversy remains about the role of AQP3 in keratinocyte differentiation. Previously, our laboratory has shown co-localization of AQP3 and phospholipase D2 (PLD2) in caveolin-rich membrane microdomains. We hypothesized that AQP3 transports glycerol and "funnels" this primary alcohol to PLD2 to form a pro-differentiative signal, such that the action of AQP3 to induce differentiation should require PLD2. To test this idea, we re-expressed AQP3 in mouse keratinocytes derived from AQP3-knockout mice. The re-expression of AQP3, which increased [3H]glycerol uptake, also induced mRNA and protein expression of epidermal differentiation markers such as keratin 1, keratin 10, and loricrin, with or without the induction of differentiation by an elevated extracellular calcium concentration. Re-expression of AQP3 had no effect on the expression of the proliferation markers keratin 5 and cyclin D1. Furthermore, a selective inhibitor of PLD2, CAY10594, and a lipase-dead (LD) PLD2 mutant, but not a LD PLD1 mutant, significantly inhibited AQP3 re-expression-induced differentiation marker expression with calcium elevation, suggesting a role for PLD2 in this process. Thus, our results indicate that AQP3 has a pro-differentiative role in epidermal keratinocytes and that PLD2 activity is necessary for this effect.

BackgroundPrevious studies indicate that the frequency distributions of HLA alleles and haplotypes vary from one ethnic group to another or between the members of the same ethnic group living in different geographic areas. It is necessary and meaningful to study the high-resolution allelic and haplotypic distributions of HLA loci in different groups.Methodology/Principal FindingsHigh-resolution HLA typing for the Uyghur ethnic minority group using polymerase chain reaction-sequence-based-typing method was first reported. HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 allelic distributions were determined in 104 unrelated healthy Uyghur individuals and haplotypic frequencies and linkage disequilibrium parameters for HLA loci were estimated using the maximum-likelihood method. A total of 35 HLA-A, 51 HLA-B and 33 HLA-DRB1 alleles were identified at the four-digit level in the population. High frequency alleles were HLA-A*1101 (13.46%), A*0201 (12.50%), A*0301 (10.10%); HLA-B*5101(8.17%), B*3501(6.73%), B*5001 (6.25%); HLA-DRB1*0701 (16.35%), DRB1*1501 (8.65%) and DRB1*0301 (7.69%). The two-locus haplotypes at the highest frequency were HLA-A*3001-B*1302 (2.88%), A*2402-B*5101 (2.86%); HLA-B*5001-DRB1*0701 (4.14%) and B*0702-DRB1*1501 (3.37%). The three-locus haplotype at the highest frequency was HLA-A*3001-B*1302-DRB1*0701(2.40%). Significantly high linkage disequilibrium was observed in six two-locus haplotypes, with their corresponding relative linkage disequilibrium parameters equal to 1. Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree between the Uyghur group and other previously reported populations was constructed on the basis of standard genetic distances among the populations calculated using the four-digit sequence-level allelic frequencies at HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 loci. The phylogenetic analyses reveal that the Uyghur group belongs to the northwestern Chinese populations and is most closely related to the Xibe group, and then to Kirgiz, Hui, Mongolian and Northern Han.Conclusions/SignificanceThe present findings could be useful to elucidate the genetic background of the population and to provide valuable data for HLA matching in clinical bone marrow transplantation, HLA-linked disease-association studies, population genetics, human identification and paternity tests in forensic sciences.