FEATURES OF CYTOKINE-MEDIATED REGULATION OF FOCAL AND SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION IN COPD

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with pulmonary and systemic inflammation. The latter is likely to contribute significantly to the pathobiology of numerous extrapulmonary effects of the disease, i.e., systemic effects of COPD. The main causes of systemic inflammation in COPD remain to be elucidated. A course of local vs. systemic inflammation is determined by an imbalance between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Cytokines are fundamental to regulation of the inflammatory process developing in response to an injury. Certain shifts in their homeostasis may lead to a local or systemic disorder. We compared relative contents of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, along with TGF-β levels in bronchoalveolar lavage (BALF) and blood sera from the patients with stable moderate and severe COPD. It has been shown that increased levels of pro-inflammatory mediators were not counterbalanced by an appropriate up-regulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines, both in BALF and peripheral blood of COPD patients, thus causing their altered interrelations. Comparison of levels of these cytokines in BALF and serum did not reveal any direct correlations, thus suggesting that systemic inflammation is not due to mere overflow of inflammatory mediators from the pulmonary tissue, while assuming some other mechanisms that may determine evolvement of this disorder.

Keywords

• cytokines
• inflammation
• copd