New discovery suggests our lungs are ‘innately prone’ to silicosis and related diseases

New research published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that our innate immune systems are a major contributor to chronic lung diseases like silicosis

For the nearly 2 million U.S. workers exposed to silica dust each year, a new discovery may help prevent or treat the development of chronic lung diseases related to this exposure. In the September 2010 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org) scientists from Montana and Texas use mice to show for the first time that the part of our immune system responsible for keeping airways clean and free of contaminants (innate immunity) can cause inflammation and symptoms of disease. This study is significant because it is generally believed that reducing chronic inflammation will improve the quality of life for patients.

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Vitamin D may treat and prevent allergic reaction to mold in cystic fibrosis patients

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 25 – Vitamin D may be an effective therapy to treat and even prevent allergy to a common mold that can cause severe complications for patients with cystic fibrosis and asthma, according to researchers from Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Louisiana State University School of Medicine.

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Natural lung material is promising scaffold for engineering lung tissue using embryonic stem cells

New Rochelle, NY, August 19, 2010—The first successful report of using cell-depleted lung as a natural growth matrix for generating new rat lung from embryonic stem cells is presented in a breakthrough article in Tissue Engineering, Part A, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The article is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ten

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New mechanisms of tumor resistance to targeted therapy in lung cancer are discovered

CSHL-led team demonstrates that increased IL-6 secretion can lead to decreased sensitivity to Tarceva

Cold Spring Harbor, NY — One of the most tantalizing developments in anti-cancer therapy over recent years has been the advent of targeted treatments, which have proven highly effective in holding aggressive cancers at bay in certain patients, although typically only for a limited period of time.

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Using bone marrow stem cells to treat critically ill patients on verge of respiratory failure

Researchers are optimistic their discovery will translate into therapy for acute lung injury

BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 11, 2010 -– Researchers are reporting this week new study results they say provide further evidence of the therapeutic potential of stem cells derived from bone marrow for patients suffering from acute lung injury, one of the most common causes of respiratory failure in intensive care units.

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Diagnostic blood test can identify rare lung disease without surgical biopsy

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have found that a certain blood test can successfully identify lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) in some patients, eliminating the need for surgical lung biopsy to make a diagnosis.

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Researchers develop living, breathing human lung-on-a-chip

BOSTON, Mass. (June 24, 2010) – Researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston have created a device that mimics a living, breathing human lung on a microchip. The device, about the size of a rubber eraser, acts much like a lung in a human body and is made using human lung and blood vessel cells.

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Scientists grow new lungs using ’skeletons’ of old ones

Successful growth and development of mouse embryonic stem cells in ‘decellularized’ rat lungs raise hopes for engineering human transplants

GALVESTON, Texas – For someone with a severe, incurable lung disorder such as cystic fibrosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung transplant may be the only chance for survival. Unfortunately, it’s often not a very good chance. Matching donor lungs are rare, and many would-be recipients die waiting for the transplants that could save their lives.

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New lung cancer drug shows dramatic results for shrinking tumors

Patients with a specific kind of lung cancer may benefit from a Phase III clinical trial offered by the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. The new drug, crizotinib, under development by Pfizer, showed dramatic results in reducing lung cancer tumors in some patients during Phase I and II clinical trials.

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Epigenetic gene silencing may hold key to fatal lung vascular disease

Contact: Rob Mitchum
robert.mitchum@uchospitals.edu
773-702-6241
University of Chicago Medical Center Read more

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