Prostacyclin prevents pulmonary endothelial cell apoptosis induced by cigarette smoke.

Rationale: Impaired endothelial cell-dependent vasodilation, inflammation, apoptosis, and proliferation are manifestations of endothelial dysfunction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Prostacyclin (PGI(2)) is a major product of the cyclooxygenase pathway with potent vasodilatory and antimitogenic properties and may be relevant to endothelial dysfunction in COPD.

Objectives: To determine if PGI(2) expression is altered in smoking-related lung disease and if it may be protective in COPD-associated endothelial dysfunction.

Emphysema lung tissue gene expression profiling.

Emphysema occurs in a subgroup of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and patients with the genetic defect of alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficiency who have a smoking history of many years' duration. Emphysema is generally the result of a chronic and progressive destruction of the alveolar structures, which is believed to be driven by chronic inflammation, infections, oxidative stress, and an imbalance of protease and antiprotease activity. Here, we use microarray technology to characterize the gene expression profile of lung tissue samples obtained from patients with advanced emphysema and that obtained from healthy subjects.

Hypoxia induces different genes in the lungs of rats compared with mice.

Different animal species have a varying response to hypoxia. Mice develop less pulmonary artery thickening after chronic hypoxia exposure than rats. We hypothesized that the lung tissue gene expression pattern displayed in hypoxic rats would differ from that of hypoxic mice.

Manipulation of pulmonary prostacyclin synthase expression prevents murine lung cancer.

Inhibition of cyclooxygenase (COX) activity decreases eicosanoid production and prevents lung cancer in animal models. Prostaglandin (PG) I(2) (PGI(2), prostacyclin) is a PGH(2) metabolite with anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, and antimetastatic properties. The instability of PGI(2) has limited its evaluation in animal models of cancer.