목적: Epithelial cells are the first barrier that prevent our body from invasion of the external materials and connected through tight junction(TJ) and adherin junction(AJ) which are composed of several adhesion molecules. The pathological feature of allergic inflammation is the destruction of epithelium, such as epithelial cell shedding and widening of the intercellular space. However, the regulatory mechanism of epithelial cells has not fully understood in patients with allergic rhinitis. In this study, we sought to observe the TJ and AJ expression pattern and elucidate regulation of cell-cell interaction in turbinate epithelial cell from patients with allergic rhinitis. 방법:The difference of adhesion molecules in turbinate epithelial cell-cell junction between healthy control subjects and patients with allergic rhinitis was observed by immunohistochemistry. To determine the cause of this difference, epithelial cells were detached from turbinate using dispase and cultured with epithelial cell medium. When the epithelial cells were grown up confluently, the cells were treated with Th1 cytokine, TNF-α or Th2 cytokine, IL-4. After overnight incubation, RNA and protein were extracted from non-treated cells or cytokine-treated cells. Expression pattern of junction protein was determined by using western blotting. 결과:In epithelial cell-cell junction of allergic turbinate and allergic turbinate epithelial cells, E-cadherin expression decreased compared to healthy control. When the cultured allergic turbinate epithelial cells were treated with IL-4, E-cadherin expression decreased compared to non-treated cells whereas the expression of E-cadherin in the cells treated with TNF-α was not changed. 결론:Both in vivo and in vitro, the expression of E-cadherin was more decreased in patients with allergic rhinitis than healthy control, indicating that epithelial cell-cell interaction in allergic rhinitis was reduced. The interaction may be regulated by cytokines.