Significance of serum lncRNA XIST in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its progression to pulmonary heart disease

BackgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has become one of the major death-related causes. Chronic pulmonary heart disease (CPHD) is an adverse complication of COPD causing poor prognosis of patients. This study evaluated the role of lncRNA XIST in COPD and CPHD aiming to identify a potential biomarker for the screening and prediction of COPD.MethodsThe study enrolled 127 COPD patients, including 73 patients occurred CPHD with 76 healthy individuals as the control group. The expression of XIST was evaluated by PCR and compared between COPD patients with different severity, grades, and complications. The diagnostic and prognostic values of XIST in COPD and CPHD were assessed by ROC and Kaplan-Meier analyses.ResultsSignificant upregulation of XIST was observed in the serum of COPD patients relative to healthy individuals, which distinguished COPD patients and showed a correlation with the respiratory and pulmonary function of COPD patients. COPD patients with acute exacerbations and CPHD showed a higher expression level. Increasing serum XIST discriminated COPD patients combined CPHD and positively correlated with right ventricular hypertrophy and pulmonary hypertension. Higher serum XIST levels could indicate the adverse 3-year prognosis of COPD patients, especially for COPD patients combined with CPHD.ConclusionUpregulated XIST served as a biomarker for screening COPD and predicting adverse prognosis of COPD and COPD patients with CPHD.