Different types of tissue composition in inflammatory or reparative upper airway disorders

Abstract

Composition changes of extracellular matrix (ECM) can lead to functional disorders of the upper airways (UA). The aim of this study was to systematically measure both the association patterns and the correlation degree between tissue composition parameters in UA inflammatory diseases. Nasal samples were obtained from patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with (CRS+NP), without nasal polyps (CRS), with post-operative adhesions (S) and normal nasal mucosa (NM). A reproducible semi-quantitative method, which takes epithelial and lamina propria damages into account was applied for haematoxylin and eosin, alpha-smooth muscle actin, reticulin, elastin, laminin and collagen type IV stainings. The most severe cases of epithelial shedding have been found in a significant higher amount in CRS+NP when compared with NM. The most severe cases of inflammatory reaction were mainly found in CRS+NP. CRS+NP had significantly more severe cases of oedema than NM. Excluding elastin, networks in other ECM proteins were found modified in fibrotic fields but to a lesser extend in oedematous regions in all conditions. Although non specific, oedema in the lamina propria is a key-feature of CRS+NP, while fibrosis, massively present in CRS and S, affects profoundly the distribution of ECM proteins in these areas.