Hamzaoui Kamel, Chelbi Hanene, Kamoun Mariam, Ben Dhifallah Imen, Hamzaoui Agnes
Homeostasis and Cell Dysfunction Unit Research 99/UR/08-40, Medicine University of Tunis, Tunis 1007, Tunisia.
Mediators Inflamm. 2007;2007:93726. doi: 10.1155/2007/93726. Epub 2007 Mar 19.
Pulmonary aneurysms and thrombosis constitute a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in Behçet's disease (BD). Various factors have been studied to explore the pathogenesis of vascular involvement in BD. As endothelin (ET) is known for its potent vasoconstrictor and proinflammatory properties, we supposed that it is involved during the inflammatory process of BD pulmonary vasculitis.
To investigate the role of ET in BD, ET-1 concentrations were measured in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of 18 nonsmoking BD patients with pulmonary manifestations and 12 control subjects. Immunoreactivity of ET-1 was also evaluated in alveolar macrophages (AMs) cytoplasm.
ET-1 levels in BD-BALF were significantly higher than those of controls. ET-1 levels were correlated with the number of alveolar macrophages, but not with BAL-CD4/CD8 ratio. ET-1-immunoreactivity was found mainly in AM of BD-BAL.
Increased ET-1 production from AM is associated with pulmonary BD manifestations.
肺动脉瘤和血栓形成是白塞病（BD）发病和死亡的重要原因。人们已经研究了多种因素来探讨BD血管受累的发病机制。由于内皮素（ET）以其强大的血管收缩和促炎特性而闻名，我们推测它参与了BD肺血管炎的炎症过程。
为了研究ET在BD中的作用，我们检测了18例有肺部表现的非吸烟BD患者和12例对照者支气管肺泡灌洗液（BALF）中的ET-1浓度。还评估了肺泡巨噬细胞（AMs）细胞质中ET-1的免疫反应性。
BD患者BALF中的ET-1水平显著高于对照组。ET-1水平与肺泡巨噬细胞数量相关，但与BAL-CD4/CD8比值无关。ET-1免疫反应性主要在BD-BAL的AMs中发现。
AMs产生的ET-1增加与BD肺部表现有关。
