Inflammatory and repair serum biomarker pattern. Association to clinical outcomes in COPD

Abstract

Abstract Background The relationship between serum biomarkers and clinical expressions of COPD is limited. We planned to further describe this association using markers of inflammation and injury and repair. Methods We studied lung function, comorbidities, exercise tolerance, BODE index, and quality of life in 253 COPD patients and recorded mortality over three years. Serum levels of Interleukins 6,8 and16, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF α) [inflammatory panel], vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) [injury and repair panel] and pulmonary and activation-regulated chemokine (PARC/CCL-18) and monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1/CCL2) [chemoattractant panel] were measured. We related the pattern of the biomarker levels to minimal clinically important differences (MCID) using a novel visualization method [ObServed Clinical Association Results (OSCAR) plot]. Results Levels of the inflammatory markers IL-6, TNF α were higher and those of injury and repair lower (p Conclusions In COPD, serum biomarkers of inflammation and repair are distinctly associated with important clinical parameters and survival.

Keywords

• Exercise
• Inflammation
• Phenotypes
• Repair
• Survival