RATIONALE Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive disease with high mortality. Although most patients have a slow, progressive course, some patients will have an acute deterioration in function or acute exacerbation, which carries a poor prognosis. In some cases, acute deterioration is associated with infection. Herpesviruses have been associated with this disease. Fibrocytes have also b...

BACKGROUND Apoptosis of lymphocytes is important in the termination of an immune response to infection but has also been shown to have detrimental effects in animal models of systemic infection and sepsis. We sought to characterize lymphocyte apoptosis in an animal model of pneumonia due to Pneumocystis murina, an infection localized to the lungs. METHODS Control mice and mice depleted of CD4...

AIMS To determine the relation between lower airway infection and inflammation, respiratory symptoms, and lung function in infants and young children with cystic fibrosis (CF). METHODS A prospective study of children with CF aged younger than 3 years, diagnosed by a newborn screening programme. All were clinically stable and had testing as outpatients. Subjects underwent bronchial lavage (BL)...

He X, Han B, Liu M. Long pentraxin 3 in pulmonary infection and acute lung injury. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 292: L1039–L1049, 2007. First published February 2, 2007; doi:10.1152/ajplung.00490.2006.—Long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a newly discovered acute phase protein produced at the sites of infection and inflammation by tissue cells, macrophages, monocytes, and dendritic cells. PTX3 play...

Both HIV-1 infection and chronic alcohol abuse adversely affect lung health. For example, through multiple mechanisms, chronic alcohol abuse increases one's susceptibility to pneumonia, particularly pneumonia caused by certain serious pathogens. Similarly, pneumonia caused by opportunistic pathogens is very common in HIV-infected patients, at least in part because HIV-1 attacks the immune cells...

UNLABELLED Infection of the lower respiratory tract by influenza A viruses results in increases in inflammation and immune cell infiltration in the lung. The dynamic relationships among the lung microenvironments, the lung, and systemic host responses during infection remain poorly understood. Here we used extensive systematic histological analysis coupled with live imaging to gain access to th...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Taiwanese women since 1982. High lung cancer mortality ratio of male:female in Taiwan (2:1) was observed, although less than 10% of female lung cancer patients are smokers. Until now, the etiological factor remains unknown. We hypothesize that high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) 16/18 may be associated with lung cancer development based on hi...

OBJECTIVES Heart and lung transplant recipients are at risk for invasive fungal infections. This study evaluated the affect of single-agent antifungal prophylaxis with itraconazole on the rate of fungal infections after heart or lung transplant. MATERIALS AND METHODS An observational, retrospective study was performed to evaluate the rate of fungal infections in heart and lung transplant reci...

RATIONALE Chlamydial lung infection has been associated with asthma in children and adults. However, how chlamydial infection influences the development of immune responses that promote asthma remains unknown. OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of chlamydial infection at various ages on the development of allergic airway disease (AAD). METHODS Mouse models of chlamydial lung infection and o...

Phospholipase is an important virulence factor for pathogenic fungi. In this study, we demonstrate the following: (i) the Paracoccidioides brasiliensis pld gene is preferentially expressed in mycelium cells, (ii) the plb1 gene is mostly up-regulated by infection after 6 h of co-infection of MH-S cells or during BALB/c mice lung infection, (iii) during lung infection, plb1, plc and pld gene expr...