SCIENCE@home

Characterisation of the proximal airway squamous metaplasia induced by chronic tobacco smoke exposure in spontaneously hypertensive rats

S. Bolton,K. Pinnion,V. Oreffo,M. Foster,K. Pinkerton

Published 2009 in Respiratory Research

ABSTRACT

BackgroundContinuous exposure to tobacco smoke (TS) is a key cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a complex multifactorial disease that is difficult to model in rodents. The spontaneously hypertensive (SH) rat exhibits several COPD-associated co-morbidities such as hypertension and increased coagulation. We have investigated whether SH rats are a more appropriate animal paradigm of COPD.MethodsSH rats were exposed to TS for 6 hours/day, 3 days/week for 14 weeks, and the lung tissues examined by immunohistochemistry.ResultsTS induced a CK13-positive squamous metaplasia in proximal airways, which also stained for Ki67 and p63. We hypothesise that this lesion arises by basal cell proliferation, which differentiates to a squamous cell phenotype. Differences in staining profiles for the functional markers CC10 and surfactant D, but not phospho-p38, indicated loss of ability to function appropriately as secretory cells. Within the parenchyma, there were also differences in the staining profiles for CC10 and surfactant D, indicating a possible attempt to compensate for losses in proximal airways. In human COPD sections, areas of CK13-positive squamous metaplasia showed sporadic p63 staining, suggesting that unlike the rat, this is not a basal cell-driven lesion.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that although proximal airway metaplasia in rat and human are both CK13+ and therefore squamous, they potentially arise by different mechanisms.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-45 of 45 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-41 of 41 citing papers · Page 1 of 1