Human airway branch variation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

著者: Benjamin M. Smith, Hussein Traboulsi, John H. M. Austin, Ani Manichaikul, Eric A. Hoffman, Eugene R. Bleecker, Wellington V. Cardoso, Christopher S. Cooper, David Couper, Stephen Dashnaw, Jia Guo, MeiLan K. Han, Nadia N. Hansel, Emlyn Hughes, David R. Jacobs, Richard E. Kanner, Joel D. Kaufman, Eric Kleerup, Ching‐Long Lin, Kiang Liu, Christian M. Lo Cascio, Fernando J. Martínez, Jennifer Nguyen, Martin R. Prince, Stephen Rennard, Stephen S. Rich, Leora Simon, Yanping Sun, Karol E. Watson, Prescott G. Woodruff, Carolyn J. Baglole, R. Graham Barr, for the MESA Lung and SPIROMICS investigators - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS 2018 被引用: 128

Significance The human airway tree is a filter of noxious particulate matter, the primary cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We demonstrate that variation in central airway tree branching occurs in over one-quarter of the general population and increases COPD susceptibility, particularly among smokers. We show that these central airway branch variants are biomarkers of altered distal lung structure, the primary site of COPD pathobiology. Finally, we demonstrate the heritability of central airway branch variants within families and identify and replicate an association with FGF 10 . These findings suggest that central airway branch variants, easily detectable by computed tomography, represent heritable biomarkers of widely altered lung structure and a COPD susceptibility factor.