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Background: Emphysema and chronic bronchitis have different pathophysiology but are both significant components of chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD). The levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-9) in bronchoalveloar lavage fluid (BALF) and in serum are associated with emphysema.Intratracheal admnistration of elastase has been used to create a rat model of emphysema. Adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been postulated to prevent or reverse emphysema but this has not been examined in the rat moel of elastase-induced emphysema.
Methods: In this study, 6/8- week-old 31 Wistar albino rats weighing between 250- 300 g were assessed. On day 1 animals were treated intratracheally with 0.5 mls saline (Controls, n=10); 0.5 ml saline solution containing 0.1 IU porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE) per animal (Elastase group, n=12) or PPE plus MSC (Elastase-MSC group, n=9). MSCs suspended in serum were injected via the caudal vein at day 21. At least 10⁶ cell were injected. All animals were sacrificed on day 42 and the emphysema index (EI) was calculated and BALF and serum MMP-9 concentrations measured.
Results: PPE induced a significant degree of emphysema compared to controls as determined by the EI index (p=0.008). This was not reversed by MSC treatment and the EI remained significantly reduced compared to controls (p=0.001) and no different from Elastase-treated animals. There was no statistically significant difference between serum and BALF MMP-9 levels between the control and treatment groups.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that therapeutic treatment with adipose tissuederived MSC in rats has no effect on emphysema or on MMP9 expression, a marker of emphysema.
Cite this article as: Yıldız Gülhan P, Ekici MS, Niyaz M, et al. Therapeutic Treatment with Abdominal Adipose Mesenchymal Cells Does Not Prevent Elastase-Induced Emphysema in Rats. Turk Thorac J 2020; 21(1): 14-20.