Inflammatory Cells Spur Infant Lung Injury

Severely premature infants can have many health problems, including underdeveloped lungs that put them at risk for developing a chronic condition known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). An inflammatory response is thought to cause the lung injury—and paradoxically, life-saving oxygen therapy contributes to the problem. "Once these structural changes in the lung are made early on, they don’t reverse," says Randi Silver, PhD, associate dean of the Graduate School of Medical Sciences and a professor of physiology and biophysics. "So understanding what is causing the damage is very important." Researchers investigated a potential culprit: an inflammatory cell type, called a mast cell, that had been associated with BPD but never shown to be causative. In a translational study, they showed that mast cells cause lung damage in newborn mice exposed to high oxygen levels and that premature infants receiving oxygen also have high levels of potentially damaging mast cell products in their lungs. The group published their results in the American Journal of Physiology–Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, with Silver as senior author.

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