Cigarette smoke extract inhibits fibroblast-mediated collagen gel contraction

1 Dipartimento di Cardiologia, Angiologia e Pneumologia, U. O. di Pneumologia e Fisiopatologia Respiratoria, Università degli Studi di Pisa, 56214 Pisa, Italy; 2 Third Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Tokushima, Tokushima 770; 3 Pulmonary Medicine, Chest Disease Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kyoto 601, Japan; and 4 Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198-5300 Cigarette smoking, the major cause of pulmonary emphysema, is characterized by destruction of alveolar walls. Because tissue destruction represents a balance between injury and repair, we hypothesized that cigarette smoke exposure may contribute to the development of emphysema through the inhibition of tissue contraction during the repair process. To partially evaluate this hypothesis, we investigated the effects of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on the ability of cultured fibroblasts to mediate collagen gel contraction in vitro: CSE inhibited fibroblast-mediated gel contraction in a concentration-dependent manner ( P