Association Of Anti-HBEC And ACA With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Part Ⅰ Antibodies of Ig G, Ig A and Ig M against Human Bronchial Epithelial Cell in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary DiseaseBackground: Recently, autoimmune mechanisms and pulmonary epithelial cells have attracted attention in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD). Circulating antibodies against human bronchial epithelial cell(anti-HBEC) bind to bronchial epithelial antigens and induce bronchial epithelial cell damage. This study aimed to detect the expression of Ig G, Ig M and Ig A anti-HBEC in patients with COPD.Methods: The association of body mass index(BMI), age, pulmonary function index and gender with the presence of Ig G, Ig A and Ig M anti-HBEC in the serum was determined in 170 patients with COPD and 150 age-matched healthy controls. Circulating Ig G, Ig A and Ig M anti-HBEC were detected by indirect immunofluorescence(IIF).Results: Positive Ig G anti-HBEC was seen in 34/170(20.00%) COPD and11/150(7.33%) healthy controls(P < 0.001)(1:100 dilution); positive Ig A anti-HBEC were presented in 50/170(29.41%) COPD and 13/150(8.67%)healthy controls(P < 0.0001)(1:40 dilution); 19/170(11.18%) COPD and10/150(6.67%) healthy controls exhibited positive Ig M anti-HBEC(P > 0.05)(1:40 dilution). The positive Ig G and Ig A anti-HBEC COPD patients were mostly distributed in GOLD(Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) III and GOLD IV. Compared to the healthy controls, the positive Ig A anti-HBEC COPD patients had lower BMI(P < 0.05).Conclusions: Our results suggest that an autoimmune mechanism associated with bronchial epithelial cell damage is possibly involved in COPD and the presence of Ig G and Ig A anti-HBEC correlated with the GOLD stage of COPD. Therefore, our studies indicate that Ig G and Ig A anti-HBEC may associate with the disease severity of COPD.Part Ⅱ Serum Anticardiolipin Antibodies Levels in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary DiseasesObjective: To investigate the anticardiolipin antibody(ACA) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases(COPD) and healthy controls, and analyze their possible correlation with COPD.Methods: The association of pulmonary function, age, gender and body mass index(BMI) with the presence ACA in the serum was determined in 103 COPD patients and 72 healthy controls. The presence of ACA Ig G/A/M was studied by enzyme linked immuno sorbent assay(ELISA) method.Results: Patients with COPD had a high incidence(16.5%) of ACA compared to the low incidence(4.2%) of ACA in the healthy controls(P < 0.05), from GOLD I to Ⅳ, ACA positive rate was 66.7%, 18.5%, 13.9%, 3.2% which declined successively. The concentration of ACA was 4.4 ± 0.7 and 2.6 ± 0.4RU/ml respectively in COPD patients and healthy controls which existed significant difference(P < 0.05); from GOLDⅠto Ⅳ, the ACA level was10.9±2.6, 3.9±1.0, 4.8±1.4 and 2.5±0.6 RU/ml respectively, the ACA level of GOLDⅠwas much higher than other GOLD stages. The ACA positive patients with COPD were mostly distributed in GOLDⅠ, there were no significant difference in sex, age and BMI between ACA positive and negative patients with COPD(P > 0.05).Conclusions: The ACA may be associated with COPD. The presence ACA correlated with early stage of COPD. Therefore, our studies indicate that ACA maybe serve as novel markers to predict early COPD.