Dipartimento di Biomedicina Sperimentale e Neuroscienze Cliniche, Sezione di Istologia ed Embriologia, Universitá degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italia.
Dipartimento di Chirurgia Orale e Maxillo Facciale, Facoltá di Medicina e Chirurgia, Universitá degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italia.
Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2014 Apr-Jun;27(2):299-304. doi: 10.1177/039463201402700219.
Churg-Strauss (CSS) syndrome is rare and of unknown etiology. It is associated with vasculitis, blood eosinophilia and granulomatosis, and affects multiple organs and systems at various stages of the disease. Specific diagnostic and monitoring tests are not yet available. This study aims to assess the changes in MMP-2 and MMP-9 along with the histopathological alterations in two cases of CSS, as possible potential diagnostic and monitoring criteria. Two adult male patients were diagnosed with CSS in the otorhinolaryngology clinic in the University of Palermo, based on multiple clinical and histopathologic criteria. Biopsies of respiratory mucosa were taken after the consent of the patients, processed for routine histopathology and immunohistochemistry as well as quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Similar biopsies were also taken from a non- CSS patient. The Assessment of MMP-2 and MMP-9 was performed using both immunohistochemistry and qPCR techniques. Histopathological alterations in the respiratory mucosa were consistent with vasculitis and granulomatous tissue formation, in addition to inflammatory cell infiltration with abundance of eosinophils. Immunohistochemistry assay performed on the samples derived from the two CSS patients showed a relative and remarkable increase of both MMP-2 and MMP-9 compared to controls. Such an increase was consistent with the qPCR results which depicted a significant increase between 20 and 30% for both MMP-2 and MMP-9, respectively. Since the secretion of MMPs is an essential step in angiogenesis, could these enzymatic factors be used as parameters to diagnose or monitor the evolution of CSS? The small number of samples analyzed in this study does not allow us to suggest a general statement correlating the increase in expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 to the appearance or evolution of vasculitis; it is only speculative.
变应性肉芽肿性血管炎（CSS）是一种罕见的病因不明的疾病。它与血管炎、血液嗜酸性粒细胞增多和肉芽肿有关，并在疾病的不同阶段影响多个器官和系统。目前还没有特定的诊断和监测测试。本研究旨在评估 MMP-2 和 MMP-9 的变化以及 CSS 两例病例的组织病理学改变，作为可能的潜在诊断和监测标准。两名成年男性患者在巴勒莫大学耳鼻喉科诊所根据多项临床和组织病理学标准被诊断为 CSS。在获得患者同意后，从呼吸道黏膜中采集活检组织，进行常规组织病理学和免疫组织化学以及定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）处理。还从非 CSS 患者中采集了类似的活检组织。使用免疫组织化学和 qPCR 技术评估 MMP-2 和 MMP-9 的表达。呼吸道黏膜的组织病理学改变与血管炎和肉芽肿性组织形成一致，此外还有炎症细胞浸润和嗜酸性粒细胞增多。对来自两名 CSS 患者的样本进行的免疫组织化学检测显示，与对照组相比，MMP-2 和 MMP-9 的相对和显著增加。这种增加与 qPCR 结果一致，分别显示 MMP-2 和 MMP-9 的表达分别增加了 20%至 30%。由于 MMPs 的分泌是血管生成的一个重要步骤，这些酶因子是否可以用作诊断或监测 CSS 演变的参数？本研究分析的样本数量较少，无法得出 MMP-2 和 MMP-9 表达增加与血管炎出现或演变相关的一般结论，这只是推测。
