Glucocorticoid regulation of interleukin 8 expression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）是一种炎症性肺部疾病，也是全世界死亡的主要原因之一。由于这是一种炎症性疾病，类固醇等抗炎药物应该有效。然而，类固醇通常不能显著改善慢性阻塞性肺病病程。这种临床观察到的对类固醇治疗的耐药性可能对了解疾病本身的基础以及对患者的临床管理很重要。因此，我们目前正在研究类固醇在COPD中的作用。我们通过比较COPD患者和健康志愿者之间的炎性肺细胞来做到这一点。白细胞介素8是炎症细胞向肺募集的关键信号，在慢性阻塞性肺病中高水平表达。白细胞介素8通常被糖皮质激素抑制；但这种作用在慢性阻塞性肺病中消失，导致它们缺乏有益作用。我们将发现为什么在慢性阻塞性肺病中，白细胞介素8对糖皮质激素抑制产生抗性。这将指明COPD治疗的新途径。

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory lung condition and a major cause of deaths worldwide. Since it is an inflammatory disease antiinflamatory medication such as steroids should be effective. However steroids usually fail to improve the COPD disease course significantly. This clinically observed resistance to steroid treatment is likely to be important for understanding the basis of the disease itself, and also for the clinical management of patients.We are, therefore, currently investigating steroid action in COPD. We are doing this by comparing inflammatory lung cells between COPD patients and healthy volunteers. Interleukin 8 is a critical signal for recruitment of inflammatory cells to the lung, and is expressed at high level in COPD. Interleukin 8 is typically inhibited by glucocorticoids; but this effect is lost in COPD, contributing to their lack of beneficial effect. We will discover why interleukin 8, in COPD, acquires resistance to glucocorticoid inhibition. This will indicate new approaches to COPD treatment.