Relationship between dust allergen sensitization and cardiac autonomic function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Objective: Cardiac autonomic function predicts cardiovascular disease risk. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sensitization to dust allergens and cardiac autonomic dysfunction in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and to provide new ideas for the prevention of cardiovascular complications in these patients.

Methods: Immunoassays for sensitization to cats/dogs, cockroaches and dust mites were performed in 840 patients with COPD.

The role of β-catenin in pulmonary artery endothelial-mesenchymal transformation in rats with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

β-catenin and endothelial mesenchymal transformation play an important role in the formation of pulmonary hypertension. To explore the role of β-catenin in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), we first established a rat model of CTEPH by repeated autologous thromboembolization and then treated these rats with a β-catenin specific inhibitor, XAV939, for two or four weeks. We further examined the expression of β-catenin, α-SMA and CD31, mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP), and histopathology in the pulmonary artery, and analyzed their correlation.