Ren Jiaqi, Chen Wenfang, Zhong Zhicheng, Wang Ning, Chen Xi, Yang Hui, Li Jing, Tang Ping, Fan Yanping, Lin Francis, Bai Changqing, Wu Jiandong
Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Shenzhen University General Hospital, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Micromachines (Basel). 2023 Sep 6;14(9):1740. doi: 10.3390/mi14091740.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a persistent and progressive respiratory disorder characterized by expiratory airflow limitation caused by chronic inflammation. Evidence has shown that COPD is correlated with neutrophil chemotaxis towards the airways, resulting in neutrophilic airway inflammation. This study aimed to evaluate neutrophil chemotaxis in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from COPD patients using a high-throughput nine-unit microfluidic platform and explore the possible correlations between neutrophil migratory dynamics and COPD development. The results showed that BALF from COPD patients induced stronger neutrophil chemotaxis than the Control BALF. Our results also showed that the chemotactic migration of neutrophils isolated from the blood of COPD patients was not significantly different from neutrophils from healthy controls, and neutrophil migration in three known chemoattractants (fMLP, IL-8, and LTB4) was not affected by glucocorticoid treatment. Moreover, comparison with clinical data showed a trend of a negative relationship between neutrophil migration chemotactic index (C. I.) in COPD BALF and patient's spirometry data, suggesting a potential correlation between neutrophil migration and the severity of COPD. The present study demonstrated the feasibility of using the microfluidic platform to assess neutrophil chemotaxis in COPD pathogenesis, and it may serve as a potential marker for COPD evaluation in the future.
慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）是一种持续性、进行性的呼吸系统疾病，其特征为慢性炎症导致的呼气气流受限。有证据表明，COPD与中性粒细胞向气道的趋化作用相关，从而导致嗜中性粒细胞性气道炎症。本研究旨在使用高通量九单元微流控平台评估COPD患者支气管肺泡灌洗液（BALF）中的中性粒细胞趋化作用，并探讨中性粒细胞迁移动力学与COPD发展之间的可能关联。结果显示，COPD患者的BALF比对照BALF诱导出更强的中性粒细胞趋化作用。我们的结果还表明，从COPD患者血液中分离出的中性粒细胞的趋化迁移与健康对照者的中性粒细胞无显著差异，并且三种已知趋化因子（fMLP、IL-8和LTB4）中的中性粒细胞迁移不受糖皮质激素治疗的影响。此外，与临床数据的比较显示，COPD BALF中的中性粒细胞迁移趋化指数（C.I.）与患者的肺功能测定数据之间呈负相关趋势，提示中性粒细胞迁移与COPD严重程度之间可能存在关联。本研究证明了使用微流控平台评估COPD发病机制中中性粒细胞趋化作用的可行性，并且它可能在未来作为COPD评估的潜在标志物。
