An Experimental Study On The Expression Of Smad3, TGF-β1 And ErbB3 In Rats With Chronic Bronchiolitis

BackgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by airflow limitation that is not fully reversible. The airflow is limited to be usually both progressive and associated with an abnormal inflammatory response of lungs to noxious particles or gases, which causes airway walls to be destructed. COPD is closely related to chronic bronchiolitis (CB) and emphysema, both of the two diseases are diagnosed COPD when they have the characters of not fully reversible airflow limitation in lung functional test. Thus, CB and emphysema may either be the primary period of COPD or belong to COPD. Airway remodeling resulted from chronic inflammation is the structural basis of airflow limitation and the key factor to the persistent progress of COPD. The morbidity of COPD is increasingly higher year by year as the development of technology in addition to cigarette smoking, and it has been the heavy economic burden both to the patients themselves and to the society. It is the inflammation both in lung and in systematic body that causes the lung dysfunction and low quality of life of patients with COPD. There are many cytokines and inflammatory mediators increased in the blood of patients with COPD. Of all these cytokines TGF-β1 is a key proinflammatory one which is involved not only in...