Objective To investigate the effects of smoking on β-defensin-2 ( BD-2) expression in induced sputumand lung tissue, and its role in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD) . Methods Patients suffering with early peripheral squamous celled lung cancer and underwent lobectomy were divided into a smoking COPD group ( COPD group) , a non-COPD smoking group ( smoker group) , and a nonsmoking group ( control group) . Preoperative induced sputumsamples were collected after hypertonic saline induction. Lung tissue samples were intraoperatively collected far from the tumor site. The sputum samples were prepared for total and differential cell count, while the lung tissue samples for pathology examination. The BD-2 concentration in sputumand lung homogenate were measured by ELISA. Correlation were analyzed between BD-2 concentration and smoking index, airway inflammation, and lung function. Results The lung pathology were highly consistent with the experimental grouping. The total cell count and neutrophils proportion in sputum and BD-2 concentration in lung homogenate were ( 2. 32 ±0. 51) ×106 / g, ( 35. 7 ±9. 8) % , and ( 14. 5 ±5. 7) ng/L in the control group respectively, while increased in the smoker group [ ( 4. 57 ±0. 87) ×106 / g, ( 52. 5 ±10. 9) % , and ( 78. 3 ±13. 1) ng/L, P lt;0. 05] , and further increased in the COPD group [ ( 6. 61 ±1. 03) ×106 / g, ( 65. 5 ±12. 3) % , and ( 127. 0 ±35. 0) ng/L, P lt; 0. 05] . The lymphocytes proportion and BD-2 concentration in sputum increased in the COPD group [ ( 3. 2 ±1. 7) % and ( 298. 0 ±135. 0) ng/L] as well as in the smoker group [ ( 2. 5 ±1. 2) % and ( 315. 0 ±124. 0) ng/L] ,as compared with the control group [ ( 1. 1 ±0. 3) % and ( 132. 0 ±48. 0) ng/L] ( P lt; 0. 05) . Linear correlation analysis revealed that BD-2 concentration in sputumwas positively correlated with smoking index,sputum total cell count and neutrophils proportion, whereas BD-2 concentration in lung homogenate wasreversely correlated with pulmonary ventilation function ( P lt; 0. 05) . Conclusions Smoking up-regulates the BD-2 level in sputum and lung tissues. Further more, the BD-2 expression status in lung tissue of smoking individuals might be associated with COPD susceptibility.
ObjectiveTo investigate the current research status and its developing trend of Crohn’s disease (CD) in Chinese journals in the past 40 years, and to provide reference for future research on CD.MethodsWith “Crohn’s disease” as the retrieval word, the literature about CD published from January 1978 to December 2017 were retrieved in the SinoMed database. The distributions of publication dates, journals, research institutions, and regions of literature were analyzed by EndNote, Excel, MySQL, and GraphPad Prism softwares.ResultsA total of 2 140 papers matched the searching criteria, including 1 391 papers published in the core journals. The number of papers increased by year, especially in the past 20 years, the growth rate of the total number of papers every 5 years was 96.67%, 202.54%, 85.15%, and 29.35%, respectively. A total of 152 papers met the criteria of evidence-based documents, and the proportion of evidence-based articles in the total papers every 5 years was 2.54%, 3.92%, 4.69%, and 12.16%, respectively. In the respect of region distribution of literature, the first addresses of 1 060 papers were in East China, accounting for 50.36% of the total number of papers. Jiangsu Province, Guangdong Province, Shanghai, Zhejiang Province, and Beijing had published a total of 1 257 papers, accounting for 59.71% of the total number of papers. In our research field, most of the studies were conducted by teaching hospitals.ConclusionsIn the past 40 years, the output of research on CD increased significantly in China. The proportion of evidence-based articles has increased, while the number of evidence-based research still needs to be improved. The regional distribution of literature was unbalanced, and teaching hospitals played a vital role in the research field.