Chest
Volume 112, Issue 6, December 1997, Pages 1615-1621
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Laboratory and Animal Investigations
Elevated Levels of Soluble Adhesion Molecules in Serum of Patients With Diffuse Panbronchiolitis

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.112.6.1615Get rights and content

Study objective

Adhesion molecules have been implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. This study was designed to determine whether soluble adhesion molecules in serum reflect the disease activity in diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB).

Patients and methods

Using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, we measured the serum levels of soluble L-, E-, and P-selectin (sL-, sE-, and sP-selectin), intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 in 27 patients with DPB, 13 with bronchiectasis, and 15 normal adults. BAL was also performed, and the levels of interleukin (IL)-8 and IL-1β in BAL fluid (BALF) were measured.

Results

The serum levels of these molecules were significantly elevated in DPB patients compared with the control subjects. DPB patients also had significant high levels of circulating sE- and sP-selectin compared with patients with bronchiectasis. There was a significant correlation between serum sE-selectin and the percentage of neutrophils in BALF in all patients. There was a significant inverse correlation between serum sE-selectin and percent vital capacity in DPB patients. In the same patients, the relationships between serum sE-selectin and BALF concentrations of IL-1β as well as between serum sL-selectin and BALF IL-8 were also significant. Treatment of DPB patients with macrolides significantly reduced the serum levels of these soluble adhesion molecules and BALF concentrations of IL-1β and IL-8.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that these soluble adhesion molecules, particularly selectins, may reflect the disease activity of DPB, and that their levels may be regulated by cytokines produced in the lungs.

Section snippets

Study Population

The study population consisted of two groups of patients with chronic neutrophil-mediated airway inflammation, including 27 patients with DPB (13 female and 14 male), 13 patients with bronchiectasis (9 female and 4 male), and healthy volunteers (control subjects, n=15: 8 female and 7 male). Healthy volunteers (aged 31 ±11 years) were younger than patients with DPB (48±16 years) and bronchiectasis (60±14 years). At the time of the investigation, one patient with bronchiectasis and one volunteer

Serum Levels of Soluble Selectins

The serum levels of sL-selectin in patients with DPB and bronchiectasis were significantly higher than in volunteer subjects (Fig 1A [top]). The serum levels of sE-selectin in patients with DPB were significantly higher than those in patients with bronchiectasis and volunteers (Fig 1B [center]). The mean serum level of sP-selectin in patients with DPB was significantly higher than in healthy volunteers and patients with bronchiectasis (Fig 1C [bottom]).

Serum Levels of Soluble ICAM-1 and VCAM-1

The serum levels of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 in

Discussion

The present study demonstrated the presence of elevated serum levels of soluble adhesion molecules in patients with chronic neutrophil-mediated airway inflammation, particularly DPB. These results, together with those from other studies, suggest that accumulation of neutrophils in the airway of DPB patients results from infiltration of these cells from the circulation following a series of processes involving several adhesion molecules present on the surface of these cells and cytokine-induced

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