Substance P stimulates human airway submucosal gland secretion mainly via a CFTR-dependent process

Original citation: J. Clin. Invest.2009;119(5):1189–1200. doi:10.1172/JCI37284.

Citation for this corrigendum: J. Clin. Invest.2010;120(3):931–932. doi:10.1172/JCI37284C1.

Following the publication of this manuscript, the authors discovered carbachol contamination of an aliquot of substance P used to generate the data in Figures 7A and 7B in the published version of this work. The authors have performed the relevant experiments again with a fresh, uncontaminated aliquot of substance P. The previously published data and the corrected data are compared in Table 3 below. The corrected text describing the new data for the Results section and the corrected Figure 7 appear below. The authors confirm that the conclusions of their study remain unchanged.

Figure 7

Evidence that SubP stimulates gland secretion, in part, via elevating [Ca (A) Fluorescence changes in response to 10 μM SubP and 10 μM carbachol. Cell diameters in images are approximately 20 microns. (B) [Ca²⁺]_i versus time for 10 cells from images in A, measured in response to sequential pulses of 10 μM SubP and 10 μM carbachol. (C) [Ca²⁺]_i versus time for 10 cells from images in A, measured in response to sequential pulses of 10 μM SubP without and with 5 μM atropine (Atr). Fluorescence ratio, 340 nm/380 nm. (D) Mean response to SubP in presence or absence of BAPTA-AM (500 μM); 4 experiments from 2 HN and 1 DC subjects (16–20 glands). Error bars are SEM. (E) Mean response to SubP in the absence and presence of clotrimazole (25 μM), which blocks Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ channels (n = 4, 27–42 glands). *P < 0.05 versus SubP responses. Error bars are SEM.

Table 3

Summary of original and new experiments with Substance P and intracellular calcium

In unstimulated cells, [Ca²⁺]_i was 70–140 nM. SubP increased [Ca²⁺]_i in 47 of 58 cells from 8 subjects by 133 ± 35 nM (peak value). All 58 cells responded to carbachol with increases in [Ca²⁺]_i that were larger than those to SubP; the responses to 1 and 10 mM carbachol were 186 ± 17 nM and 231 ± 36 nM, respectively. We considered the possibility that gland cells that are unresponsive to SubP might be a different cell type. To help differentiate serous and mucous cells in some of the dispersed cell preparations, we used PAS staining and observed a negative correlation between PAS reactivity and SubP responsiveness. For SubP-responsive cells, 7 of 25 (28%) were PAS positive (contain mucus), while for SubP-nonresponsive cells, 6 of 8 (75%) were PAS positive.

The authors regret the errors.