ABSTRACT
Objective: To study if there is an aryl-hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) expression in patients of pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with congenital heart disease (CHD-PAH) and to explore if the amount of AHR expression related to pulmonary vascular remodeling. Methods:A total of 32 CHD-PAH patients diagnosed by echocardiography and right heart catheterization for surgical repair were enrolled, and the lung tissue biopsy was performed during the operation. The pulmonaryAHR was detected by immunolfuorescence assay, the ratios of vessel wall area/total area (WA/TA) and vessel wall thickness/vessel external diameter (WD/TD) of small pulmonary arteries were calculated with the imaging software, the mRNA expression of AHR, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), aryl-hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were examined by RT-PCR. In addition, blood level of AHR was measured by ELISA. Results: There was AHR expression in pulmonary tissue in all 32 patients. And AHR mRNA expressions were positively related to mPAP (r=0.809,P Conclusion: AHR might be involved in pulmonary vascular remodeling in CHD-PAHpatients.