Elevated levels of fragmented laminin-5 γ2-chain in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from dogs with pulmonary eosinophilia

Inflammation causes epithelial cell sloughing and basement membrane (BM) exposure in canine pulmonary eosinophilia (PE), leading to degradation of the epithelial cell attachment component, laminin-5 γ2-chain, into small molecular weight fragments. The subsidence of inflammation after treatment down-regulates degradation. Laminin-5 γ2-chain levels and molecular forms in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were analysed semiquantitatively by Western immunoblotting to compare PE affected (n = 20) and healthy dogs (n = 16) as well as PE dogs (n = 6) before and after corticosteroid treatment. PE dogs expressed significantly elevated levels of total (P < 0.01), 36 kDa (P < 0.05) and 53 kDa (P < 0.05) laminin-5 γ2-fragments. The 36 kDa fragment decreased significantly (P < 0.05) after treatment. The laminin-5 γ2-chain degradation products may be linked to epithelial cell sloughing and BM exposure or healing.