Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China.
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China.
Aging (Albany NY). 2020 Dec 21;13(1):1251-1263. doi: 10.18632/aging.202266.
Expression of β2-microglobulin (β2M) is involved in fibrosis progression in kidney, liver, and heart. In this case-controlled retrospective study, we investigated the role of β2M in the development of pulmonary fibrosis in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Analysis of 450 COPD patients revealed that patients with decreased pulmonary diffusing capacity (DLCO) had increased β2M serum levels. Compared to patients with lower β2M serum levels, patients with increased β2M levels exhibited increased alveolar wall/septal thickening and lung tissue β2M expression. In addition, patients with increased β2M levels had increased lung expression of TGF-β1, Smad4, and a-SMA. Animal experiments showed that increased β2M expression resulted in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), alveolar wall/septal thickening, and pulmonary fibrosis in a rat COPD model. Together, these results indicate that β2M serum levels may serve as a new indicator for assessment of pulmonary diffusion function and pulmonary fibrosis severity in clinical practice and may provide a potential target for treatment of pulmonary fibrosis in the future.
β2-微球蛋白（β2M）的表达参与肾脏、肝脏和心脏的纤维化进展。在这项病例对照回顾性研究中，我们研究了β2M 在慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）患者肺纤维化发展中的作用。对 450 名 COPD 患者的分析表明，肺弥散能力（DLCO）降低的患者β2M 血清水平升高。与β2M 血清水平较低的患者相比，β2M 水平升高的患者表现出肺泡壁/间隔增厚和肺组织β2M 表达增加。此外，β2M 水平升高的患者的 TGF-β1、Smad4 和 a-SMA 在肺中的表达增加。动物实验表明，在大鼠 COPD 模型中，β2M 表达增加导致上皮-间充质转化（EMT）、肺泡壁/间隔增厚和肺纤维化。综上所述，这些结果表明β2M 血清水平可能作为评估临床实践中肺弥散功能和肺纤维化严重程度的新指标，并可能为未来肺纤维化的治疗提供潜在靶点。
