Ozone and Pulmonary Innate Immunity

Ozone and pulmonary innate immunity.

Ambient ozone (O(3)) is a commonly encountered environmental air pollutant with considerable impact on public health. Many other inhaled environmental toxicants can substantially affect pulmonary immune responses. Therefore, it is of considerable interest to better understand the complex interaction between environmental airway irritants and immunologically based human disease. The innate immun...

Ambient ozone primes pulmonary innate immunity in mice.

Exposure to ozone in air pollution in urban environments is associated with increases in pulmonary-related hospitalizations and mortality. Because ozone also alters clearance of pulmonary bacterial pathogens, we hypothesized that inhalation of ozone modifies innate immunity in the lung. To address our hypothesis, we exposed C57BL/6J mice to either free air or ozone, and then subsequently challe...

Innate Immunity Sublethal Hyperoxia Impairs Pulmonary

Innate immunity and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a mini-review.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a major smoking-associated lung disorder characterized by progressive irreversible airflow limitation, affects >200 million people worldwide. Individuals with COPD have increased susceptibility to respiratory infections, resulting in exacerbations of the disease. A growing body of evidence indicates that multiple host defense mechanisms, such as tho...

Anionic antimicrobial peptide-lysozyme interactions in innate pulmonary immunity.

The respiratory tract contains numerous antimicrobial factors necessary for normal innate pulmonary defense. Although many of these molecules reside in airway surface liquid (ASL) simultaneously, little information exists concerning antagonistic, additive, or synergistic interactions. Since both cationic lysozyme and anionic antimicrobial peptides (AP) are found in high concentrations in ASL, t...