Role of α‐SMA, NOX4, Fibronectin, and HIF‐1α in Pulmonary Microvascular Remodeling in COPD Patients Without Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Guo Xiaotong, Fan Yuchun, Ji Ting, Cao Xia, Jiang Haifeng, Chen Juan, Xin Hongxia · 2026
Read Role of α‐SMA, NOX4, Fibronectin, and HIF‐1α in Pulmonary Microvascular Remodeling in COPD Patients Without Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension by Guo Xiaotong, Fan Yuchun, Ji Ting, Cao Xia, Jiang Haifeng, Chen Juan, Xin Hongxia (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13449298.txt.
Description
Guo and colleagues check whether tiny lung blood vessels remodel in COPD, a chronic lung disease, before high pressure in the lung arteries sets in. Their 2026 study uses lung tissue from 20 patients with COPD and 17 controls who had lung surgery in Ningxia, China. The team stains vessel walls for four proteins tied to muscle growth, oxidative stress, and low oxygen response, and measures wall thickness and blood levels of one growth factor.
COPD lungs showed thicker smooth muscle in vessels, swollen and dying lining cells, and more fibronectin, a matrix protein, in vessel walls. Levels of NOX4, an enzyme that makes reactive oxygen, and HIF-1α, a low oxygen sensor, ran high, notably in immune cells around vessels. A vessel growth factor in blood also ran high and tracked with the oxygen sensor. The pattern points to an early stress pathway that may drive the remodeling.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Guo Xiaotong, Fan Yuchun, Ji Ting, Cao Xia, Jiang Haifeng, Chen Juan, Xin Hongxia |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 35 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |