TY - JOUR
TI - Impact of Immune-Inflammatory Microenvironment Alterations on the
Bronchial Lumen of Children With Protracted Bacterial Bronchitis
AU - Ntesou, Despoina
AU - Douros, Konstantinos
AU - Tsiambas, Evangelos and
AU - Maipas, Sotirios
AU - Sarlanis, Helen
AU - Lazaris, Andreas C. and
AU - Kavantzas, Nikolaos
JO - CUREUS JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE
PY - 2021
VL - 13
TODO - 12
SP - null
PB - CUREUS INC
SN - null
TODO - 10.7759/cureus.20554
TODO - basement membrane thickening; chronic cough; immunology; asthma;
protracted bacterial bronchitis
TODO - Protracted bacterial bronchitis is a syndrome that is among the most
common causes of chronic cough. In order to understand its pathogenetic
mechanisms, there is an increasing interest in the study of the immune
microenvironment in the bronchial lumen. The aim of this retrospective
study is the determination of the types and quantity of the inflammatory
cells that infiltrate the bronchial epithelium as well as of the
thickness of the basement membrane. Ninety-seven endobronchial biopsies,
obtained from 77 children (30 males and 47 females) aged between 5 and
14 years, with chronic ( 8 weeks) wet/productive cough, were subjected
to hematoxylin and eosin staining. Using an appropriate image analysis
and processing software, we determined the types and the quantity of the
inflammatory cells that infiltrated the bronchial epithelium, and the
thickness of the basement membrane. The metric data were then subjected
to extensive statistical analysis. According to our results, females had
increased levels of eosinophils (p = 0.021) and lymphocytes (p = 0.044)
compared to males. Moreover, we found that membrane thickness was
negatively correlated with the number of eosinophils (p < 0.0001),
neutrophils (p = 0.023), and lymphocytes (p = 0.024). Finally, the
pairwise comparisons of the number of eosinophils, neutrophils,
lymphocytes, and other cell types revealed significant (p < 0.05)
positive correlations. Protracted bacterial bronchitis activates
pulmonary innate immune pathways. Also, it is accompanied by basement
membrane thickening, which is a typical characteristic of several
respiratory diseases, such as asthma.
ER -