Although mechanical ventilation is a life-saving strategy in critically ill patients and an indispensable tool in patients under general anesthesia for surgery, it also acts as a double-edged sword. Indeed, ventilation is increasingly recognized as a potentially dangerous intrusion that has the potential to harm lungs, in a condition known as 'ventilator-induced lung injury' (VILI). So-called '...

The treatment of severe acut lung failure includes artificial ventilation with a lung protective concept, but in situations of life-threatening respiratory failure with persistent hypoxia/hypercapnia, the technique of extracorporeal lung assist has been employed. A veno-venous pump-driven extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is established in specialized centres requiring extended equipme...

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are chronic, progressive and lethal lung diseases. The incidence of IPF and COPD increases with age, independent of exposure to common environmental risk factors. At present, there is limited understanding of the relationship between ageing and the development of chronic lung diseases. One hypothesis is that ch...

Amphiregulin, an EGF receptor (EGFR) ligand, is essential for epithelial development in various organs. A recent report suggested that amphiregulin acts as a protective factor in a liver injury model. Little is known about the roles of amphiregulin in lung injury and pulmonary fibrosis. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of amphiregulin in an experimental model of bleo...

Administering high levels of inspired oxygen, or hyperoxia, is commonly used as a life-sustaining measure in critically ill patients. However, prolonged exposures can exacerbate respiratory failure. Our previous study showed that TLR4 confers protection against hyperoxia-induced lung injury and mortality. Hsp70 has potent cytoprotective properties and has been described as a TLR4 ligand in cell...

Annexin A1 (AnxA1) is an endogenous protein that modulates anti-inflammatory processes, and its therapeutic potential has been reported in a range of inflammatory diseases. The effect of AnxA1 on ischemia-reperfusion (IR)-induced lung injury has not been examined. In this study, isolated, perfused rat lungs were subjected to IR lung injury induced by ischemia for 40 min, followed by reperfusion...

This experiment was conducted to study whether pretreatment with Glycyrrhizin (GL) could ameliorate ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) lung injury and investigate the mechanisms of its protective effects in a mice model. Six-eight weeks male BALB/C mice were randomly assigned to four groups (n = 6): Control, Glycyrrhizin, I/R and I/R+Glycyrrhizin. Lung I/R was achieved by clamping the left hilus pulmon...

PURPOSE To evaluate whether topical renal hypothermia (TRH) at different levels of temperature has protective effects on lung tissue after renal I/R, through an analysis of organ histology and inflammatory markers in lung tissue. METHODS Twenty-eight male Wistar rats were randomly allocated across four groups and subjected to renal ischemia at different levels of topical renal temperature: no...

This article explores the question of the implementation of lung protective ventilation in the OR. The discussion on how to ventilate surgical patients intraoperatively to minimize postoperative pulmonary complications has been vivid in the past years. Various randomized controlled trials (RTCs) and reviews have been conducted to bring light into the dark. However, research has not fully resolv...

There is a call for methodologically robust randomised clinical trials in adult extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for its routine implementation for patients with "failing" conventional ventilation. Adherence to lung protective ventilation strategies, along with fluid balance [if required early renal replacement therapy] and inotropes to support the circulation to minimise ventilator-induced ...