Figure 1.

Prolonged cigarette smoke (CS) exposure promotes the induction of emphysema and the production of extracellular matrix autoantibodies in B6 mice. (A) Mean linear intercept of chronically CS-exposed mice demonstrates lung pathological changes associated with emphysema. ^##P < 0.01. (B) Note the significant increase in antielastin, collagen I, and decorin IgG antibodies in chronically CS-exposed mice as compared with non–smoke-exposed age-matched control mice (NS), as determined by ELISA. ^##P < 0.05. (C) Subtyping of elastin extracellular matrix antibodies and isotypes demonstrates significant increases in complement-activating antielastin IgM, IgG, IgG2, and IgG3 as measured by ELISA in CS as compared with NS. ^##P < 0.05. O.D. = optical density.