Increased uptake of 111In-octreotide in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

What Was Tested

This clinical trial paper looks at Octreotide.

One aim of their study was to evaluate the expression of somatostatin receptors in the lungs of patients with IPF.

A second aim was to evaluate the relationship between 111In-octreotide uptake and the effect of pulmonary fibrosis as assessed by lung function tests and parameters and by radiologic findings.

Why It Was Studied

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by an uncontrolled accumulation and activation of lung fibroblasts.

A modulation of fibroblast activation has been observed in various systems with octreotide, a synthetic somatostatin analog with strong affinity for the somatostatin receptor subtype 2 (sst2).

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 11 patients were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The expression of somatostatin receptors was evaluated in vivo using 111In-octreotide scintigraphy.

The researchers evaluated the relationship between 111In-octreotide uptake and the activity of pulmonary fibrosis as assessed by lung function tests, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cellularity, and high-resolution CT (HRCT) of the chest.

Planar images and thoracic SPECT (24 h) were performed after injection of 222 MBq of 111In-octreotide.

Lung uptake was quantified using the lung-to-background ratio (L/B).

In addition, the expression of sst2 was evaluated in vitro, in frozen lung-tissue samples using autoradiography, and in human cultures of lung fibroblasts using a ligand-binding assay.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal, Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid, Cells, Cultured, Fibroblasts, Indium Radioisotopes, Lung and Octreotide.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of Octreotide in 11 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2006 (Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Octreotide compound page.