TY - JOUR T1 - Altered composition of airway basement membranes in COPD JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p3820 AU - Oskar Hallgren AU - Annika Andersson-Sjöland AU - Elisabet Wieslander AU - Martina Kvist-Reimer AU - Magnus Dahlbäck AU - Leif Ericsson AU - Jonas Erjefält AU - Leif Bjermer AU - Claes-Göran Löfdahl AU - Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p3820.abstract N2 - Rationale: The basement membrane provides a chemical and mechanical structure which is crucial for the mucosal homeostasis in the airways. Thickening of lamina reticularis is a common feature in asthma but the situation in COPD is less clear. Our hypothesis was that there are quantitative and qualitative alterations in airway basement membranes in COPD that influence the integrity of epithelial and mesenchymal cells.Methods: Lung tissue sections from COPD patients and control subjects were subjected to H & E and picrosirius-RED staining. Sections were also immunostained using antibodies against the small proteoglycans: decorin and biglycan. Fibroblasts were isolated from lung explants from COPD patients (n=8) (GOLD stage IV) and biopsies from control subjects (n=9) and proteoglycan production were examined in vitro.Results: Hematoxylin/Eosin-staining showed an unevenly distributed thickening of lamina reticularis in bronchial and bronchiolar airways from COPD patients but not from control subjects. The thickened areas stained positive for picrosirius RED, which shows the presence of fibrillar collagens (collagen I and III). This was accompanied with increased immuno-positivity for the small leucin-rich proteoglycans decorin and biglycan. Fibroblasts isolated from bronchial specimen from COPD patients had decreased production of the basement membrane stabilizing proteoglycan perlecan (p<0.05).Conclusions: This data indicate that there are qualitative and quantitative alterations of airway basement membranes in COPD. We suggest that the observed alterations are indicators of areas with active remodeling which influence the phenotype of epithelial cells and underlying mesenchymal cells which may result in fibrotic deposition. ER -