Kierszniewska-Stepień Dorota, Pietras Tadeusz, Górski Pawel, Stepien Henryk
Department of Pneumology and Allergy, Medical University of Lodz, 90-153, Kopcinskiego 22, Lodz, Poland.
Eur Cytokine Netw. 2006 Mar;17(1):75-9.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disorder which encompasses not only morphological changes in parenchyma, central and peripheral airways but also in structural and functional changes of pulmonary vessels. The role of angiogenic factors leading to abnormal pulmonary vessel remodeling remains unclear. We have investigated a cytokine vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) known to be involved in angiogenesis, and its soluble receptors (sVEGF R1, sVEGF R2) in the serum of 20 patients with mild COPD and 10 patients with very severe COPD, using sensitive enzyme-linked immunoassays. The control group consisted of 10 healthy volunteers. We found that the concentration of VEGF in the serum of patients with mild COPD was significantly higher (665.31 +/- 102.20 pg/mL) in comparison to the control group (318.94 +/- 51.40 pg/mL; p < 0.05), and there was a strong negative correlation with FEV1 (r = -0.859; p < 0.001). Additionally, the level of sVEGF R1 in the serum of patients with very severe COPD was also significantly higher (96.60 +/- 26.85 pg/mL) than in the control (36.01 +/- 3.29 pg/mL; p < 0.05) and a positive correlation between the serum level of sVEGF R1 and FEV1 was found (r = 0.748; p < 0.01). Moreover, we observed an insignificant increase of sVEGF R2 in the serum of patients with mild COPD and those with very severe COPD. These results suggest that VEGF and sVEGF R1 receptor are involved in the development of abnormal pulmonary vascular remodelling in patients with COPD.
慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）是一种不仅包括实质、中央和外周气道形态学改变，还包括肺血管结构和功能改变的疾病。导致肺血管异常重塑的血管生成因子的作用仍不清楚。我们使用灵敏的酶联免疫分析法，对20例轻度COPD患者和10例极重度COPD患者血清中的一种已知参与血管生成的细胞因子血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）及其可溶性受体（sVEGF R1、sVEGF R2）进行了研究。对照组由10名健康志愿者组成。我们发现，轻度COPD患者血清中VEGF的浓度（665.31±102.20 pg/mL）显著高于对照组（318.94±51.40 pg/mL；p<0.05），且与第一秒用力呼气容积（FEV1）呈强烈负相关（r=-0.859；p<0.001）。此外，极重度COPD患者血清中sVEGF R1的水平（96.60±26.85 pg/mL）也显著高于对照组（36.01±3.29 pg/mL；p<0.05），且血清sVEGF R1水平与FEV1呈正相关（r=0.748；p<0.01）。此外，我们观察到轻度COPD患者和极重度COPD患者血清中sVEGF R2有不显著的升高。这些结果表明，VEGF和sVEGF R1受体参与了COPD患者异常肺血管重塑的发生发展。
