COPD patients have unique neutrophils

Scientists have used quantitative analysis processes to determine the protein profile of neutrophils from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

In a study published by BMC Pulmonary Medicine, scientists from the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the University Medical Center in the Netherlands sought to confirm or disprove a hypothesis about COPD.

They believed that TNFalpha/GM-CSF-induced protein profiles could be found in peripheral neutrophils of COPD patients as lung epithelium, alveolar macrophages and other inflammatory cells secrete them and they are thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of COPD.

Using fluorescence 2-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis the scientists investigated the differentially regulated proteins in peripheral neutrophils from COPD patients and healthy control subjects of the same age.

They found that neutrophils from COPD patients did have a unique protein profile but that "the neutrophil profiles of COPD patients do not reflect putative dominant signals induced by TNFalphaGM-CSF or their combination".