Logo image
Human airway branch variation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Human airway branch variation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Benjamin M Smith, Hussein Traboulsi, John H M Austin, Ani Manichaikul, Eric A Hoffman, Eugene R Bleecker, Wellington V Cardoso, Christopher Cooper, David J Couper, Stephen M Dashnaw, …
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.115(5), pp.E974-E981
01/30/2018
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1715564115
PMCID: PMC5798356
PMID: 29339516
url
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1715564115View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Susceptibility to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) beyond cigarette smoking is incompletely understood, although several genetic variants associated with COPD are known to regulate airway branch development. We demonstrate that in vivo central airway branch variants are present in 26.5% of the general population, are unchanged over 10 y, and exhibit strong familial aggregation. The most common airway branch variant is associated with COPD in two cohorts ( = 5,054), with greater central airway bifurcation density, and with emphysema throughout the lung. The second most common airway branch variant is associated with COPD among smokers, with narrower airway lumens in all lobes, and with genetic polymorphisms within the gene. We conclude that central airway branch variation, readily detected by computed tomography, is a biomarker of widely altered lung structure with a genetic basis and represents a COPD susceptibility factor.
Phenotype Pulmonary Emphysema - physiopathology Disease Susceptibility Prospective Studies Humans Middle Aged Bronchi - physiopathology Genotype Male Tomography, X-Ray Computed Lung - physiopathology Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - physiopathology Image Processing, Computer-Assisted Bronchi - anatomy & histology Aged, 80 and over Female Aged Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide Fibroblast Growth Factor 10 - genetics Trachea - physiopathology Respiration Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - genetics Smoking Trachea - anatomy & histology

Details

Metrics

Logo image