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Updated: May 11, 2026

Isolation of Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cells from Neonatal Mice
Published on: October 19, 2013
Cyclooxygenase-2 expression in lung in patients with congenital heart malformations and pulmonary arterial
Tsvetomir Loukanov1, Christoph Jaschinski, Milen Kirilov
1Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. Tsvetomir.Loukanov@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Background:
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a cause of morbidity in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). It has been hypothesized that prostanoides participate in the development of PAH. The aim of this study was to show the potential expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in patients with CHD and PAH.
Patients And Methods:
We included patients with isolated left-to-right shunts undergoing lung biopsy before or concomitantly with cardiac surgery between 2004 and 2009.For determination of COX-2 expression, histological and immunohistochemistry analyses as well as quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) were performed.
Results:
We were able to show COX-2 protein overexpression in the lung tissue of children with CHD and PAH. Furthermore, we showed an increase in COX-1 gene expression and an even stronger induction of COX-2 by using qPCR and immunohistochemistry.
Conclusions:
We examined the expression of COX-2 in lung tissue from patients with CHD and PAH. We showed that COX-2 is expressed in diseased lung tissue, indicating a relationship between COX-2 and vascular remodeling in pulmonary arteries in CHD.
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