Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is influenced by environmental and genetic factors. An important fraction of COPD cases harbor a major genetic determinant, inherited ZZ (Glu342Lys) α1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). A study was undertaken to investigate gene expression patterns in end-stage COPD lungs from patients with and without AATD. Methods Explanted lungs of end-stage ZZ AATD-related (treated and non-treated with AAT augmentation therapy) and “normal” MM COPD, and liver biopsies from patients suffering from liver cirrhosis with and without ZZ AATD were used for gene expression analysis by Affymetrix microarrays or RT-PCR. Results A total of 162 genes were found to be differentially expressed (p-value ≤ 0.05 and |FC| ≥ 2) between MM and ZZ COPD patients. Of those, 134 gene sets were up-regulated and 28 were down-regulated in ZZ relative to MM lung tissue. A subgroup of genes, zinc finger protein 165, snail homolog 1 (Drosophila) (SNAI1), and Krüppel-like transcription factors (KLFs) 4 (gut), 9 and 10, perfectly segregated ZZ and MM COPD patients. The higher expression of KLF 9 and KLF10 has been verified in the replication cohort with AATD-related end-stage lung emphysema and liver cirrhosis. Furthermore, higher expression of KLF9, SNAI1 and DEFA1 was found in ZZ COPD lungs without augmentation therapy relative to MM COPD or ZZ COPD with augmentation therapy. Conclusions These results reveal the involvement of transcriptional regulators of the zinc-finger family in COPD pathogenesis and provide deeper insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms of COPD with and without AATD.
Koczullaet al. Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases2012,7:29 http://www.ojrd.com/content/7/1/29
R E S E A R C HOpen Access Krüppellike zinc finger proteins in endstage COPD lungs with and without severe alpha1antitrypsin deficiency 1,2* 1†63,4 5 2 ARembert Koczulla, Danny Jonigk, Thomas Wolf, Christian Herr , Sarah Noeske , Walter Klepetko , 1,2 31 77 8 Claus Vogelmeier, Nils von Neuhoff , Johanna Rische , Sabine Wrenger , Heiko Golpon , Robert Voswinckel , 9 97 7* Maurizio Luisetti , Ilaria Ferrarotti , Tobias Welteand Sabina Janciauskiene
Abstract Background:Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is influenced by environmental and genetic factors. An important fraction of COPD cases harbor a major genetic determinant, inherited ZZ (Glu342Lys)α1antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). A study was undertaken to investigate gene expression patterns in endstage COPD lungs from patients with and without AATD. Methods:Explanted lungs of endstage ZZ AATDrelated (treated and nontreated with AAT augmentation therapy) and“normal”MM COPD, and liver biopsies from patients suffering from liver cirrhosis with and without ZZ AATD were used for gene expression analysis by Affymetrix microarrays or RTPCR. Results:A total of 162 genes were found to be differentially expressed (pvalue≤0.05 and |FC|≥2) between MM and ZZ COPD patients. Of those, 134 gene sets were upregulated and 28 were downregulated in ZZ relative to MM lung tissue. A subgroup of genes, zinc finger protein 165, snail homolog 1 (Drosophila) (SNAI1), and Krüppellike transcription factors (KLFs) 4 (gut), 9 and 10, perfectly segregated ZZ and MM COPD patients. The higher expression of KLF 9 and KLF10 has been verified in the replication cohort with AATDrelated endstage lung emphysema and liver cirrhosis. Furthermore, higher expression of KLF9, SNAI1 and DEFA1 was found in ZZ COPD lungs without augmentation therapy relative to MM COPD or ZZ COPD with augmentation therapy. Conclusions:These results reveal the involvement of transcriptional regulators of the zincfinger family in COPD pathogenesis and provide deeper insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms of COPD with and without AATD. Keywords:Alpha 1antitrypsin, COPD, Gene expression, Krüppellike zinc finger proteins, Affymetrix gene chips
Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) includes a broad spectrum of respiratory symptoms and histo pathological changes with varying degrees of severity, and it is typically diagnosed late in the course of disease when the patient presents with significant impairment
* Correspondence: koczulla@med.unimarburg.de; janciauskiene.sabina@ mhhannover.de † Equal contributors 1 Institute of Pathology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany 7 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hannover Medical School, FeodorLynenStr. 23, Hannover 30625, Germany Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
[1,2]. Different inflammatory cells (macrophages, neutro phils, CD8+ T lymphocytes) and several interrelated pro cesses, such as chronic inflammation per se, proteinase/ antiproteinase imbalance, oxidative stress, apoptosis and replenishment of structural cells, are thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of COPD [3]. Given this complexity of COPD, the identification of biological markers of disease susceptibility and/or progression is of great importance [4]. DNA microarrays have been proven to be a powerful tool capable of biomarker dis covery for various disease entities. Previous studies used this approach to characterize global gene expression pat terns from lung tissue of patients with COPD, and to