Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2005 Apr 1;171(7):734-42.
doi: 10.1164/rccm.200409-1275OC. Epub 2004 Nov 24.

An animal model of autoimmune emphysema

Laimute Taraseviciene-Stewart  1 , Robertas Scerbavicius, Kang-Hyeon Choe, Melissa Moore, Andrew Sullivan, Mark R Nicolls, Andrew P Fontenot, Rubin M Tuder, Norbert F Voelkel
Affiliations
Comparative Study

An animal model of autoimmune emphysema

Laimute Taraseviciene-Stewart et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. .

Abstract

Although cigarette smoking is implicated in the pathogenesis of emphysema, the precise mechanisms of chronic progressive alveolar septal destruction are not well understood. We show, in a novel animal model, that immunocompetent, but not athymic, nude rats injected intraperitoneally with xenogeneic endothelial cells (ECs) produce antibodies against ECs and develop emphysema. Immunization with ECs also leads to alveolar septal cell apoptosis and activation of matrix metalloproteases MMP-9 and MMP-2. Anti-EC antibodies cause EC apoptosis in vitro and emphysema in passively immunized mice. Moreover, immunization also causes accumulation of CD4+ T cells in the lung. Adoptive transfer of pathogenic, spleen-derived CD4+ cells into naive immunocompetent animal also results in emphysema. This study shows for the first time that humoral- and CD4+ cell-dependent mechanisms are sufficient to trigger the development of emphysema, suggesting that alveolar septal cell destruction might result from immune mechanisms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms