Elevated levels of tenascin-C in patients with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia.
OBJECTIVE
Idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs) comprises a group of diffuse parenchymal lung diseases of unknown etiology with varying degrees of inflammation and fibrosis including cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP). Tenascin-C is an extracellular matrix molecule that is expressed during wound healing in various tissues. The present study was aimed to investigate the role of tenascin-C in the pathogenesis of IIPs.


METHODS
We used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to measure levels of tenascin-C in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from 17 patients with IPF, 12 with NSIP, 15 with COP and from 23 healthy individuals.


RESULTS
Serum levels of tenascin-C were significantly elevated in patients with COP compared with those in all other participants, whereas those in patients with IPF and NSIP were not significantly elevated compared with healthy individuals. The levels of tenascin-C in BALF from patients with COP and NSIP were significantly higher than those of healthy individuals. In addition, serum tenascin-C was significantly correlated with levels of serum C-reactive protein, which is a serum acute phase protein.


CONCLUSIONS
Systemic inflammation in the lung with IIPs might be associated with tenascin-C. These results suggest that tenascin-C is responsible for the pathogenesis of IIPs especially via inflammation, and that it might serve as a serum marker of COP.
Hisatomi
Keiko
K
The Second Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Nagasaki.
Sakamoto
Noriho
N
Mukae
Hiroshi
H
Hayashi
Tomayoshi
T
Amenomori
Misato
M
Ishimoto
Hiroshi
H
Fujita
Hanako
H
Ishii
Hiroshi
H
Nakayama
Seiko
S
Ishimatsu
Yuji
Y
Kohno
Shigeru
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000737:chemistry; D018549:Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D054988:Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonias / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D018836:Inflammation Mediators / Q000097:blood / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019063:Tenascin / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000097:blood*
D015415:Biomarkers; D018836:Inflammation Mediators; D019063:Tenascin