ArticleERJ open research2021
Increased myofibroblasts in the small airways, and relationship to remodelling and functional changes in smokers and COPD patients: potential role of epithelial-mesenchymal transition.
Article in ERJ open research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Incidence and Risk Factors for Progression from Pre-COPD to COPD: A Systematic Review and Meta‑analysis.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2026Pooled it
- Research on the effectiveness and safety of bronchial thermoplasty in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.European journal of medical research · 2023Trial
- Airway cell-cell communication in smoking through integration of spatial and single-cell transcriptomics.Respiratory research · 2026Article
- Peripheral Blood Inflammatory Markers and Immune Cell Profiles in Smokers With and Without COPD.Pulmonary therapy · 2026Article
- Plasminogen Activation System and Fibroblasts: Impact on Tissue Remodeling, Disease, and Organ Homeostasis.Inflammation · 2026Review
- Pathogenesis, Diagnostic Advances, and Therapeutic Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Narrative Review.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2026Review
- A Single Cell Atlas of the COPD Lung Identifies Inflammatory Reprogramming in Fibroblasts.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Airway Spatial Transcriptomics in Smoking.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition is an active process in the large airways of patients with asthma-COPD overlap and partially abrogated by inhaled corticosteroid treatment: a bronchoscopy endobronchial biopsy study.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- MiR-1307-5p enhances fibroblast transdifferentiation to exacerbate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease through regulating FBXL16/HIF1α axis.Respiratory research · 2024Article
- Differential expression of mast cells in the small airways and alveolar septa of current smokers and patients with small airway disease and COPD.ERJ open research · 2024Article
- Endothelial to mesenchymal transition is an active process in smokers and patients with early COPD contributing to pulmonary arterial pathology.ERJ open research · 2024Article
- Epithelial-mesenchymal transition changes in nonsmall cell lung cancer patients with early COPD.ERJ open research · 2023Article
- Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Mechanisms in Chronic Airway Diseases: A Common Process to Target?International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Electronic Cigarette Exposure Increases the Severity of Influenza a Virus Infection via TRAIL Dysregulation in Human Precision-Cut Lung Slices.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- The telomerase activator TA-65 protects from cigarette smoke-induced small airway remodeling in mice through extra-telomeric effects.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Differential airway remodeling changes were observed in patients with asthma COPD overlap compared to patients with asthma and COPD alone.American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology · 2022Article
- Arterial remodelling in smokers and in patients with small airway disease and COPD: implications for lung physiology and early origins of pulmonary hypertension.ERJ open research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionPrevious reports have shown epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) as an active process that contributes to small airway fibrotic pathology. Myofibroblasts are highly active pro-fibrotic cells that secrete excessive and altered extracellular matrix (ECM). Here we relate small airway myofibroblast presence with airway remodelling, physiology and EMT activity in smokers and COPD patients.
methodsLung resections from nonsmoker controls, normal lung function smokers and COPD current and ex-smokers were stained with anti-human α-smooth muscle actin (SMA), collagen 1 and fibronectin. αSMA
resultsWe found an increase in subepithelial lamina propria (especially) and adventitia thickness in all pathological groups compared to nonsmoker controls. Increases in αSMA
conclusionsThis is the first systematic characterisation of small airway myofibroblasts in COPD based on their localisation, with statistically significant correlations between them and other pan-airway structural, lung function and ECM protein changes. Finally, we suggest that EMT may be involved in such changes.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.