Expression and significance of heme oxygenase -1 in the lung tissue of asthmatic rat

Objective: To investigate the protein expressions of HO-1 in the lung tissue of asthmatic rat; the ratios of eosinophils to the total cell numbers(EOS%) in BALF, the numbers of eosinophils in airway wall(EOS), correlation of the percentage content of blood carbon monoxide Hb(COHb) and the expressions of HO-1 in the lung tissue of asthmatic rat. M e t h o d s : Twenty Sprague-Dawley (SD) male rats were randomly divided into 2 groups:the control group and asthma group, each group had 10 rats. The assessment of the percentage content of blood carbon monoxide Hb(COHb) was performed.The total cell number and differ- entiation cell numbers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF) and the inflammatory cells of airway wall were counted, the protein expressions of HO-1 in airway wall was detected with immunohistochemistry techniques. Results: The expression of HO-1 was mainly located in airway epithelium in the 2 groups with the optical densities being (0.07±0.01),(0.22± 0.03), respectively.The optical densities of the asthmatic group were higher than that of the control group(P0.01). There was a significant positive correlation among the expression of HO-1 in airway wall, the percent content of blood carbon monoxide Hb (COHb) (r=0.943,P0.01) and EOS% in BALF(r=0.912,P0.01) and the numbers of EOS in lung tissue (r=0.945,P0.01). C o n c l u s i o n : The expression of HO-1 is increased significantly in the lung tissue of asthmatic rat,suggesting HO-1 may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of asthma.