Serum Levels of Apoptosis-Related Markers (sFasL, TNF-α, p53 and bcl-2) in COPD Patients

Introduction: Taking into account important role of apoptosis in COPD pathogenesis, we wanted to asses the serum levels of markers involved in apoptosis regulation, including apoptosis inducers such as TNF-α, sFasL or p53 protein and apoptosis inhibitor bcl-2 and, in addition, to compare these markers with selected COPD parameters. Material and methods: In 181 patients (60 women) with COPD (age was 62.2 + 9.37 years; FEV₁% 55.2 + 19.98 %) and in 29 controls (11 women), serum levels of TNF-α, sFasL, p53 and bcl-2 were evaluated by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Results: In COPD patients the mean sFasL level was 0.092 ± 0.077 ng/mL and mean TNF-α level was 2.911 ± 3.239 pg/mL. There were no differences in serum sFasL and TNF-α in COPD patients and control group. TNF-α and sFasL did not correlate with COPD parameters such as FEV₁%, BMI, RV% (percentage of predicted value of residual volume) or BODE. Although we tried to evaluate bcl-2 and p53 protein serum levels with two different tests, measurable levels of bcl-2 were only detected in 15 patients and p53 in only 3 patients. Bcl-2 values were from 0.418 to 11.423 ng/mL and p53 from 90.772 to 994.749 pg/mL. Conclusions: We didn’t observe any differences in serum levels of pro- and antiapoptotic markers in COPD patients and the control group or correlations between the markers studied and COPD parameters.