Nogami Makoto, Mutsuro-Aoki Hiromi, Hoshi Tomoaki, Toukairin Yoko, Arai Tomomi, Nishio Tadashi
Department of Legal Medicine, Teikyo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1, Kaga, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-8605, Japan.
BMC Res Notes. 2025 Jul 31;18(1):336. doi: 10.1186/s13104-025-07292-2.
SARS-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the cause of the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein binds to a cellular receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). COVID-19 pneumonia has a tendency to cause peripheral inflammation. To test the possibility that peripheral predominance of COVID-19 pneumonia is dependent on the peripheral expressions of ACE2, ACE2-positive macrophages and type 2 alveolar epithelial cells were immunohistochemically counted under the microscope, and compared between peripheral and hilar lung areas.
Our result shows that peripheral alveolar macrophages express statistically significantly higher positivity in ACE2 than hilar alveolar macrophages. On the other hand, no statistically significant difference is shown in the expression of ACE2 in type 2 alveolar epithelia between peripheral and hilar alveoli. The higher expression of ACE2 immunoreactivity in peripheral alveolar macrophages may contribute to understanding the peripheral susceptibility of COVID-19 pneumonia.
严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）是冠状病毒病19（COVID-19）的病原体。SARS-CoV-2刺突（S）糖蛋白与细胞受体血管紧张素转换酶2（ACE2）结合。COVID-19肺炎倾向于引起外周炎症。为了检验COVID-19肺炎外周优势是否依赖于ACE2的外周表达，在显微镜下对ACE2阳性巨噬细胞和2型肺泡上皮细胞进行免疫组织化学计数，并比较肺外周和肺门区域。
我们的结果显示，外周肺泡巨噬细胞中ACE2的阳性表达在统计学上显著高于肺门肺泡巨噬细胞。另一方面，外周和肺门肺泡的2型肺泡上皮细胞中ACE2的表达没有统计学上的显著差异。外周肺泡巨噬细胞中ACE2免疫反应性的较高表达可能有助于理解COVID-19肺炎的外周易感性。
