Researchers Find Protective Effects of Natural Inhibitor

A therapy that improves survival in patients with pulmonary disease may also protect patients who are exposed to cigarette smoke, according to researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center and the University of Colorado.

The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

"Our lab hypothesized that this potent vasodilator called prostacyclin may help shield patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from pulmonary damage," says Dr. Patrick Nana-Sinkam, co-author of the study and also a pulmonologist and critical care specialist at the Center for Critical Care and Respiratory Medicine at Ohio State ,, s Medical Center. "We also thought that, because there is a decreased survival rate among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with pulmonary hypertension, prostacyclin may be protective to the pulmonary vasculature."

The research showed that prostacyclin, a hormone-like dilator of pulmonary blood vessels, may have protective effects on the lungs following both acute and chronic cigarette smoke exposure.

Exposure to cigarette smoke is a major risk factor for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease that progressively makes it difficult to breathe and can lead to respiratory failure. Prostacyclin is naturally produced in the pulmonary vascular endothelium and inhibits the formation of blood clots.

"We examined lung tissue of patients with emphysema and compared them to normal tissue to determine if prostacyclin expression is biologically relevant to the pulmonary vasculature in smoking-related lung disease," said Nana-Sinkam.

"Prostacyclin appears to partially prevent the damage that cigarette smoke causes to the blood vessels of the lung," adds Nana-Sinkam.

Along with Nana-Sinkam, other researchers involved in the study were Mark Geraci and Norbert Voelkel from the University of Colorado Health Science Center and Jong Deog Lee from the Gyeongsang National University in the Republic of Korea.

The study was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the University of Colorado ,, s Specialized Program of Research Excellence in lung cancer and a Veteran's Affairs Merit Award.