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Intriguing bronchoalveolar lavage proteome in a case of pulmonary langerhans cell histiocytosis
Bijar Ghafouri1, H Lennart Persson, Christer Tagesson
1Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Medical and Health Sciences (IMH), Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Pain- and Rehabilitation Centre, County Council of Östergötland, Linköping, Sweden ; Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKE), Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Centre of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, County Council of Östergotland, Linkoping, Sweden.
Background:
Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis (PLCH) is a rare interstitial lung disease associated with tobacco smoke exposure. New insights into its pathogenesis and how it differs from that of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be provided by proteomic studies on bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF).
Case Report:
We present the BALF proteome in a biopsy-proven case of PLCH and compare it with typical proteomes of COPD and of the healthy lung. The BALF proteins were separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and the protein patterns were analyzed with a computerized 2-DE imaging system. As compared to the healthy subject and the COPD case, the PLCH case showed a strikingly different 2-DE pattern. There was much more IgG (heavy chain) and orosomucoid, and less α1-antitrypsin, surfactant protein-A, haptoglobin, cystatin-S, Clara cell protein 10, transthyretin and gelsolin. Moreover, no apolipoprotein-A1, pro-apolipoprotein-A1, amyloid P, calgranulin A, or calgranulin B was detected at all.
Conclusions:
This case of PLCH presents with an extreme BALF proteome lacking significant amounts of protective and anti-inflammatory proteins. Thus, the intriguing BALF proteome opens up new lines of research into the pathophysiology of PLCH and how its pathogenesis differs from that in COPD.
