• Davi S Sales, Juliana T Ito, Ivy A Zanchetta, Raquel Annoni, Marcelo V Aun, Luiz Fernando S Ferraz, Daniela A B Cervilha, Elnara Negri, Thais Mauad, Mílton A Martins, and Fernanda D T Q S Lopes.
• a Department of Medicine, Laboratory of Experimental Therapeutics (LIM-20), School of Medicine , University of Sao Paulo , Sao Paulo , Brazil.
• COPD. 2017 Oct 1; 14 (5): 533-542.

AbstractThe importance of the adaptive immune response, specifically the role of regulatory T (Treg) cells in controlling the obstruction progression in smokers, has been highlighted. To quantify the adaptive immune cells in different lung compartments, we used lung tissues from 21 never-smokers without lung disease, 22 current and/or ex-smokers without lung disease (NOS) and 13 current and/or ex-smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for histological analysis. We observed increased T, B, IL-17 and BAFF+ cells in small and large airways of COPD individuals; however, in the NOS, we only observed increase in T and IL-17+ cells only in small airways. A decrease in the density of Treg+, TGF-β+ and IL-10+ in small and large airways was observed only in COPD individuals. In the lymphoid tissues, Treg, T,B-cells and BAFF+ cells were also increased in COPD; however, changes in Treg inhibitory associated cytokines were not observed in this compartment. Therefore, our results suggest that difference in Treg+ cell distributions in lung compartments and the decrease in TGF-β+ and IL-10+ cells in the airways may lead to the obstruction in smokers.

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