Proteomic profiling of lung immune cells reveals dysregulation of phagocytotic pathways in female-dominated molecular COPD phenotype

BACKGROUND: Smoking is the main risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Women with COPD who smoke experienced a higher risk of hospitalization and worse decline of lung function. Yet the mechanisms of these gender-related differences in clinical presentations in COPD remain unknown. The aim of our study is to identify proteins and molecular pathways associated with COPD pathogenesis, with emphasis on elucidating molecular gender difference. METHOD: We employed shotgun isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) proteome analyses of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells from smokers with normal lung function (n = 25) and early stage COPD patients (n = 18). Multivariate modeling, pathway enrichment analysis, and correlation with clinical characteristics were performed to identify specific proteins and pathways of interest. RESULTS: More pronounced alterations both at the protein- and pathway- levels were observed in female COPD patients, involving dysregulation of the FcγR-mediated phagocytosis-lysosomal axis and increase in oxidative stress. Alterations in pathways of the phagocytosis-lysosomal axis associated with a female-dominated COPD phenotype correlated well with specific clinical features: FcγR-mediated phagocytosis correlated with FEV(1)/FVC, the lysosomal pathway correlated with CT < −950 Hounsfield Units (HU), and regulation of actin cytoskeleton correlated with FEV(1) and FEV1/FVC in female COPD patients. Alterations observed in the corresponding male cohort were minor. CONCLUSION: The identified molecular pathways suggest dysregulation of several phagocytosis-related pathways in BAL cells in female COPD patients, with correlation to both the level of obstruction (FEV(1)/FVC) and disease severity (FEV(1)) as well as emphysema (CT < −950 HU) in women. TRIAL REGISTRATION: No.: NCT02627872, retrospectively registered on December 9, 2015. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12931-017-0699-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.