Cellular therapies for lung disease – a distant horizon
Lung diseases constitute a major global burden of health and are characterized by inflammation and chronic fibrosis resulting in a loss of gas exchange units. To date there has been no effective treatment to reverse these chronic inflammatory changes and tissue remodeling.
Recently stem cells have been shown to successfully treat animal models of lung disease. In addition certain cells have demonstrated a capacity to differentiate into lung cells. Based on these preliminary data, there are clinical trials underway to examine the potential for cellular therapies in lung disease. Recently there have been a variety of cell examined for both their immunomodulatory effects on the lung as well as their potential for differentiation into lung cells. These range from lung progenitor cells,...
The combined effect of smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol on cause-specific mortality: a 30 year cohort study
Phenotyping airway disease with optical coherence tomography
Airway diseases are a major concern around the world. However, the pace of new drug and biomarker discovery has lagged behind those of other common disorders such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. One major barrier in airway research has been the inability to accurately visualize large or small airway remodelling or dysplastic/neoplastic (either pre or early cancerous) changes using non‐ or minimally invasive instruments.
The advent of optical coherence tomography (OCT) has the potential to revolutionize airway research and management by allowing investigators and clinicians to visualize the airway with resolution approaching histology and without exposing patients to harmful effects of ionizing radiation. Thus, with the aid of OCT, we may be able to accurately determine a...
Association between the tumour necrosis factor‐α−308G/A polymorphism and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: An update
Anti-endothelial cell antibodies increased in COPD
"These findings suggest that an autoimmune component associated with endothelial cell damage is possibly involved in COPD," comment lead researcher Naoki Inui and colleagues from Hamamatsu University School of Medicine in Japan.
The findings come from a study of 116 patients with COPD and 157 individuals without any clinical or radiologic evidence of COPD, asthma, or other respiratory conditions (controls).
All of the COPD patients except one were current or previous smokers, with a median smoking history of 51 pack-years. A total of 82 controls had a history of smoking similar to that of the patients with COPD, but with normal spirometry results. ...