Fibrocytes are associated with vascular and parenchymal remodelling in patients with obliterative bronchiolitis

Abstract

Abstract Background The aim of the present study was to explore the occurrence of fibrocytes in tissue and to investigate whether the appearance of fibrocytes may be linked to structural changes of the parenchyme and vasculature in the lungs of patients with obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) following lung or bone marrow transplantation. Methods Identification of parenchyme, vasculature, and fibrocytes was done by histological methods in lung tissue from bone marrow or lung-transplanted patients with obliterative bronchiolitis, and from controls. Results The transplanted patients had significantly higher amounts of tissue in the alveolar parenchyme (46.5 ± 17.6%) than the controls (21.7 ± 7.6%) (p Conclusion Our results indicate that fibrocytes are associated with pathological remodelling processes in patients with OB and that tissue fibrocytes might be a useful biomarker in these processes.