Specific haptoglobin expression in bronchoalveolar lavage during differentiation of circulating fibroblast progenitor cells in mild asthma

Haptoglobin is an acute-phase glycoprotein considered to be involved in tissue repair and is produced by fibroblasts and inflammatory cells. By using a gel-based proteomic approach, we show for the first time a possible role for haptoglobin in the differentiation of fibroblast progenitor cells, termed fibrocytes, in patients with mild asthma. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was performed to sample circulating fibrocytes from patients with mild asthma and nonasthmatic control subjects. Fibrocytes from the airway lumen were characterized by triple staining of the markers CD34/CD45R0/alpha-smooth muscle actin, and subjected to confocal microscopy. The protein expression pattern was analyzed using two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF). Elevated levels of haptoglobin expression in BALF was reported in a sub-group of patients with mild asthma (p < 0.05) when compared to the other subjects. In addition, this increase in haptoglobin was accompanied by differentiation of fibrocytes into fibroblast-like cells. When further analyzing the expression pattern of haptoglobin isoforms, a heterozygous expression was detected in the patients where fibrocyte differentiation could be observed. These data raise the possibility that an acute and specific inflammatory state facilitates the differentiation of fibroblast progenitor cells into activated fibroblasts. Furthermore, this study proposes a novel role for haptoglobin in airway remodeling in patients with asthma.