Lung Injury and Repair In Search of New Treatment Modalities

Abstract

The lung contains the largest surface of our body that is exposed to the environment. Day in, day out, our lungs are being exposed to many injurious components, ranging from noxious gasses and particles caused by traffic and chemical industries to a multitude of microorganisms. The lung has a host of defense mechanisms to combat this constant invasion, ranging from the simplest, the nasopharyngeal barrier, to the most intricate one, the immune system1. This natural defense mechanism of the lung is dependent on an intact pulmonary epithelium, abundance of pulmonary macrophages, neutrophils and dendritic cells. But even with all these barriers, exogenous factors can still lead to lung injury. This thesis will characterize lung injury, and most importantly, lung repair, using animal models of two lung diseases: Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.