A type of cell used by the immune system could have a significant role in the development of chronic lung disease in premature infants, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatric and Developmental Pathology.
Premature infants are at a much higher risk of a chronic lung disease called bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Since BPD has multiple causes, new research about how the immune system affects the disease may help scientists develop methods to treat the condition.
Researchers at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island performed postmortem examinations on preterm infants born at 23 to 29 weeks and spent time on a ventilator. As a control group, they performed the same examination on age-matched infants who had lived less than 12 hours but had not been ventilated and showed no signs of lung infection.
Compared to the control group, the lungs of the infants who had been ventilated had three times as many dendritic cells — the immune regulatory cells that can affect how blood vessels develop.
"Our study revealed that dendritic cells are an integral and prevalent component of developing human lungs," concluded the researchers.
"The role and regulation of pulmonary dendritic cells may lead to novel therapeutic approaches for this disease."