Influence of coexistence of mild OSA on airway mucus hypersecretion in patients with COPD

The coexistence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
can cause multiple system damage, and the main physiological mechanisms are continuous hypoxia and
intermittent hypoxia (IH). Airway mucus hypersecretion is an important clinical feature of COPD,
which can cause a progressive decline of lung function, acute COPD aggravation, and disease
progression. The purpose of our study is to determine the influence of the coexistence of mild OSA
on airway mucus hypersecretion. Clinical data and airway epithelial samples of 36 subjects were
collected. The average fluorescence intensity of MUC5AC and the number of goblet cells were measured
through immunofluorescence staining. MUC5AC expression was measured in human bronchial epithelial
(HBE) cells exposed to normoxia, IH, particulate matter (PM), and PM + IH using real-time
quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. FEV 1 % pred and FEV 1 /FVC were higher
in p...

Source: Journal of Breath Research - February 2, 2021 Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Nansheng Wan, Xin Tang, Hui Ding, Yuxia Yan, Yan Zhuang, Chao Qi, Qianqian Chen, Wei Xie, Jing Zhang, Yan Wang, Maoli Liang, Wen Ning and Jie Cao Source Type: research