Alveolar Epithelium: Beyond the Barrier

Effects of hypoxia on the alveolar epithelium.

An important role of the alveolar epithelium is to contribute to the alveolocapillary barrier, secrete surfactant to lower the surface tension, and clear edema. These are energy-requiring processes for which normal oxygenation is required. There are many clinical conditions in which alveolar epithelial cells are exposed to low oxygen concentrations and although they can adapt to hypoxia, there ...

The Alveolar Epithelium and Pulmonary Fibrosis

Idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs) are a heterogeneous group of diffuse pulmonary parenchymal diseases that are comprised of seven distinct clinical and pathological entities. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) represent two of the most prevalent members of the disease group with major differences in their pathogenesis, clinical course and prog...

Beyond the Nash Equilibrium Barrier

Nash equilibrium analysis has become the de facto standard for judging the solution quality achieved in systemscomposed of selfish users. This mindset is so pervasive in computer science that even the few papers devoted todirectly analyzing outcomes of dynamic processes in repeated games (e.g., best-response or no-regret learningdynamics) have focused on showing that the perform...

Solute permeability of the alveolar capillary barrier.

Sessile alveolar macrophages communicate with alveolar epithelium to modulate immunity

The tissue-resident macrophages of barrier organs constitute the first line of defence against pathogens at the systemic interface with the ambient environment. In the lung, resident alveolarmacrophages (AMs)providea sentinel functionagainst inhaledpathogens.Bacterial constituents ligate Toll-like receptors (TLRs) onAMs, causingAMs to secrete proinflammatory cytokines that activate alveolar epi...