Introduction: Environmental pollutants injure the mucociliary elevator, thereby provoking disease progression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Epithelial resilience mechanisms to environmental nanoparticles in health and disease are poorly characterised.
Methods: We delineated the impact of prevalent pollutants such as carbon and zinc oxide nanoparticles, on cellular function and progeny in primary human bronchial epithelial cells (pHBECs) from end-stage COPD (COPD-IV, n=4), early disease (COPD-II, n=3) and pulmonary healthy individuals (n=4).
Background: Pulmonary vascular disease (PVD) affects the majority of preterm neonates with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and significantly determines long-term mortality through undetected progression into pulmonary hypertension. Our objectives were to associate characteristics of pulmonary artery (PA) flow and cardiac function with BPD-associated PVD near term using advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for improved risk stratification.
Methods: Preterms <32 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA) with/without BPD were clinically monitored including standard echocardiography and prospectively enrolled for 3 T MRI in spontaneous sleep near term (AIRR (Attention to Infants at Respiratory Risks) study).
Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol
August 2023
The development of chronic lung disease in the neonate, also known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), is the most common long-term complication in prematurely born infants. In BPD, the disease-characteristic inflammatory response culminates in nonreversible remodeling of the developing gas exchange area, provoked by the impact of postnatal treatments such as mechanical ventilation (MV) and oxygen treatment. To evaluate the potential of prenatal treatment regimens to modulate this inflammatory response and thereby impact the vulnerability of the lung toward postnatal injury, we designed a multilayered preclinical mouse model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Inflammation is a key driver of morbidity in the vulnerable preterm infant exposed to pre- and postnatal hazards and significantly contributes to chronic lung disease, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). However, the early changes in innate immunity associated with BPD development are incompletely understood.
Methods: In very immature preterm infants below 32 weeks gestational age (GA; n=30 infants), monocyte subtypes were identified by Flow Cytometry at birth and throughout the postnatal course including intracellular TNF expression upon LPS stimulation.
Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis
February 2023
SARS-CoV-2 remains an acute threat to human health, endangering hospital capacities worldwide. Previous studies have aimed at informing pathophysiologic understanding and identification of disease indicators for risk assessment, monitoring, and therapeutic guidance. While findings start to emerge in the general population, observations in high-risk patients with complex pre-existing conditions are limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the neonatal lung, exposure to both prenatal and early postnatal risk factors converge into the development of injury and ultimately chronic disease, also known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). The focus of many studies has been the characteristic inflammatory responses provoked by these exposures. Here, we review the relationship between immaturity and prenatal conditions, as well as postnatal exposure to mechanical ventilation and oxygen toxicity, with the imbalance of pro- and anti-inflammatory regulatory networks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Chronic lung disease, that is, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most common complication in preterm infants and develops as a consequence of the misguided formation of the gas-exchange area undergoing prenatal and postnatal injury. Subsequent vascular disease and its progression into pulmonary arterial hypertension critically determines long-term outcome in the BPD infant but lacks identification of early, disease-defining changes.
Methods: We link impaired bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signalling to the earliest onset of vascular pathology in the human preterm lung and delineate the specific effects of the most prevalent prenatal and postnatal clinical risk factors for lung injury mimicking clinically relevant conditions in a multilayered animal model using wild-type and transgenic neonatal mice.
Ovarian cancer is the second most common gynecological malignancy in women. More than 70% of the cases are diagnosed at the advanced stage, presenting as primary peritoneal metastasis, which results in a poor 5-year survival rate of around 40%. Mechanisms of peritoneal metastasis, including adhesion, migration, and invasion, are still not completely understood and therapeutic options are extremely limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis a human-specific pathogen that causes gonorrhea, the second most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. Disease progression, drug discovery, and basic host-pathogen interactions are studied using different approaches, which rely on models ranging from 2D cell culture to complex 3D tissues and animals. In this review, we discuss the models used in research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacteria , is characterized by a large number of neutrophils recruited to the site of infection. Therefore, proper modeling of the interaction with neutrophils is very important for investigating and understanding the mechanisms that gonococci use to evade the immune response. We have used a combination of a unique human 3D tissue model together with a dynamic culture system to study neutrophil transmigration to the site of infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Cell Infect Microbiol
June 2021
, a Gram-negative obligate human pathogenic bacterium, infects human epithelial cells and causes sexually transmitted diseases. Emerging multi-antibiotic resistant gonococci and increasing numbers of infections complicate the treatment of infected patients. Here, we used an shRNA library screen and next-generation sequencing to identify factors involved in epithelial cell infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGonorrhea is the second most common sexually transmitted infection in the world and is caused by Gram-negative diplococcus . Since is a human-specific pathogen, animal infection models are only of limited use. Therefore, a suitable cell culture model for studying the complete infection including adhesion, transmigration and transport to deeper tissue layers is required.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF