Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The bronchial and lung tissue shows different reconstruction characteristics in the process of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as the bronchial and lung fibroblasts may exhibit different biological characteristics during the process for repairing defects. 
OBJECTIVE: To observe the cytoskeleton protein expression and the proliferation of human lung and bronchial fibroblasts cultured in vitro in order to clarify the mechanism of bronchial and lung tissue remodeling of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 
METHODS: Human lung and bronchial fibroblasts were cultured in vitro; the expression of vimentin and α smooth muscle actin was detected by immunohistochemistry; MTT assay was utilized for measuring the fibroblasts proliferation.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Vimentin and α smooth muscle actin were intensely expressed in the human lung and bronchial fibroblasts, but the distribution was different between lung and bronchial fibroblasts. In the cytoplasm of lung fibroblasts, vimentin was expressed mainly around the nuclear in a dot-like pattern, and vimentin was distributed along the cell membrane. In the bronchial fibroblasts, the vimentin was distributed along the cell membrane; in the lung fibroblasts, α smooth muscle actin was distributed in the cell membrane. Under the same culture condition, the proliferative degree of lung and bronchial fibroblasts was different. The bronchial fibroblasts proliferated significantly faster than the lung fibroblasts. These findings suggest that bronchial and lung fibroblasts behave differently in the repair and regenerative process of lung and bronchial tissue remodeling, which might play a pivotal role in the airflow limitation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.