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The role of elastases in the development of emphysema

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Abstract

Enzymes which degrade elastin can disorganize the network of elastic fibers in the lungs of experimental animals and produce emphysema. Two sources of endogenous elastases in the lung are neutrophils and alveolar macrophages. The neutrophil elastase is an intracellular, granule-associated enzyme which is inhibited by α1-antitrypsin and has the capacity to produce emphysema in experimental animals. The recently identified macrophage elastase appears to be a secretory enzyme, not associated with granules and less effectively inhibited by α1-antitrypsin. The demonstration that macrophages from cigarette smokers release elastase in culture, and that cigarette smoke interferes with the action of inhibitors of elastase, suggests that elastases may be involved in the pathogenesis of emphysema in man. Further research is needed to establish whether degradation of elastin occurs in humans developing emphysema.

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  1. Department of Pathology and Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, USA

    Charles Kuhn M. D. & Robert M. Senior

  2. the Pulmonary Disease and Respiratory Care Division, Department of Medicine, The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Charles Kuhn M. D. & Robert M. Senior

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Supported by U.S. Public Health Service grant HL 16118. Presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting, American College of Chest Physicians, Las Vegas, Nevada, November 1977.

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Kuhn, C., Senior, R.M. The role of elastases in the development of emphysema. Lung 155, 185–197 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02730693

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