Expression of RAGE in pulmonary tissue of patients diagnosed with sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome

• Grant number: 18/24085-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2018
• End date: October 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Fernando Ferraz da Silva
• Grantee: Giovana da Costa Sigrist
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/21728-2 - The use of modern autopsy techniques to investigate human diseases (MODAU), AP.TEM

Abstract

The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterized in pathology by diffuse alveolar damage, edema, severe hypoxemia, decreased pulmonary compliance, increased lung weight, increased physiological dead space, increased hyaline membrane formation and hemorrhage. ARDS is responsible for 10.4% of intensive care unit admissions, the mortality rate can vary from 34.9% to 46.1% depending on its severity. It is estimated that 40% of the cases are undiagnosed and sepsis is one the important factors that contribute to the severity of the disease. Since it remains a challenge to identify patients with ARDS and differentiate it from other causes of acute respiratory failure, many studies have focused on biomarkers and despite the advances in this area, there is no single and reliable biomarker being used in clinical practice nowadays. The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the expression of RAGE in the pulmonary epithelium of patients with ARDS, patients with sepsis and control individuals. Therefore, lung tissue from 130 patients (45 with diagnosis of ARDS, 40 patients with diagnosis of sepsis and without criteria for ARDS and 35 control patients who died of non-pulmonary causes from HC-FMUSP who had their necropsies performed at the São Paulo Autopsy Service (SVOC). Fragments of lung tissue collected at the routine necropsy will be used for immunohistochemically analysis of RAGE. The protein expression of these biomarkers will be measured in the pulmonary epithelium and compared among the groups. In addition, these parameters will be correlated with clinical variables obtained from the medical records.