Kodama N, Yamaguchi E, Hizawa N, Furuya K, Kojima J, Oguri M, Takahashi T, Kawakami Y
First Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 1998 Apr;18(4):526-31. doi: 10.1165/ajrcmb.18.4.2868.
Emphasis has recently been placed on the roles of chemotactic cytokines called chemokines to explain the accumulation of inflammatory cells in the lung that may precede or accompany pulmonary fibrosis in interstitial lung diseases. We hypothesized that RANTES, a member of the C-C chemokines, is one such chemokine. Bronchoalveolar lavage was done in 20 patients with sarcoidosis, 10 patients with interstitial pneumonia associated with collagen vascular disease (CVD-IP), 10 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and eight healthy volunteers (HV), all of whom were never-smokers. We semiquantitated the spontaneous RANTES mRNA expression by a competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique, and measured the levels of RANTES protein by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In all disease groups the expression of RANTES mRNA by bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cells and the levels of RANTES protein in BALF were significantly increased compared with those in HV. Patients with sarcoidosis and CVD-IP had a significant positive correlation between the expression of RANTES mRNA by BALF cells and BALF lymphocytosis. The amounts of RANTES mRNA expressed by peripheral blood mononuclear cells and the levels of RANTES protein in serum did not differ among all study groups. Our study demonstrates the adaptability of a semiquantitative RT-PCR method for determining cytokine mRNA expression in vivo. Our results suggest that RANTES may be one of the chemokines that are involved in the mechanism for the accumulation of inflammatory cells in the lung of some distinct interstitial lung diseases.
最近，人们开始重视一类名为趋化因子的趋化细胞因子在解释间质性肺病中可能先于或伴随肺纤维化出现的肺部炎症细胞积聚过程中所起的作用。我们推测，C-C趋化因子家族成员RANTES就是这样一种趋化因子。对20例结节病患者、10例与胶原血管病相关的间质性肺炎（CVD-IP）患者、10例特发性肺纤维化（IPF）患者以及8名健康志愿者（HV）进行了支气管肺泡灌洗，所有受试者均为非吸烟者。我们采用竞争性逆转录-聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）技术对RANTES mRNA的自发表达进行半定量，并通过酶联免疫吸附测定法测量RANTES蛋白水平。与健康志愿者相比，所有疾病组支气管肺泡灌洗（BALF）细胞中RANTES mRNA的表达以及BALF中RANTES蛋白水平均显著升高。结节病和CVD-IP患者BALF细胞中RANTES mRNA的表达与BALF淋巴细胞增多之间存在显著正相关。所有研究组外周血单个核细胞表达的RANTES mRNA量以及血清中RANTES蛋白水平并无差异。我们的研究证明了半定量RT-PCR方法在体内测定细胞因子mRNA表达方面的适用性。我们的结果表明，RANTES可能是参与某些特定间质性肺病肺部炎症细胞积聚机制的趋化因子之一。
