Limited literature sources implicate mast-cell mediator chymase in the pathologies of pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary fibrosis. However, there is no evidence on the contribution of chymase to the development of pulmonary hypertension associated with lung fibrosis, which is an important medical condition linked with increased mortality of patients who already suffer from a life-threatening ...

BACKGROUND Immunosuppressive therapy has been-until the recent release of new guidelines on diagnosis and management-the recommended treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. However, its efficacy in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis has always been a matter of debate. CASE PRESENTATION We report the occurrence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in a white man receiving chronic imm...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary involvement is a common feature of MPA. Although alveolar hemorrhage is the most common pulmonary manifestation of MPA, a few recent studies have described instances of MPA patients with pulmonary fibrosis. Pulmonary fibrosis was seen to predate, be concomitant with, or occur after the diagnosis of MPA. The goal of this study was to describe the clinical features and progno...

Pulmonary fibrosis in mice induced by peplomycin (PEP) was suppressed by administration of anti-inflammatory agents such as prednisolone and D-penicillamine during or after the administration of PEP. Pulmonary fibrosis was also suppressed by administration of cyclophosphamide, an immunosuppressive antitumor agent before, during or after the administration of PEP. The pulmonary fibrosis in athym...

introduction: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (ipf) is a relentlessly progressive and usually fatal lung disease of unknown etiology for which no effective treatments currently exist. in the adults type i and ii pneumocytes, forms components of the alveolar epithelial cells. in this study, we investigated the effect of thalidomide on the alveolar epithelial cells (type i and ii pneumocytes) in th...

BACKGROUND Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the most common form of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, is characterized by progressive, irreversible scarring of the lung parenchyma. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis has a poor prognosis, and there are no medical therapies available that have been shown to improve survival. It is usually sporadic, but there is evidence of familial clustering of pulmon...

REFERENCES 1 Raghu G, Freudenberger TD, Yang S, et al. High prevalence of abnormal gastro-oesophageal reflux in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Eur Respir J 2006; 27: 136–142. 2 Mays EE, Dubois JJ, Hamilton GB. Pulmonary fibrosis associated with tracheobronchial aspiration. A study of the frequency of hiatal hernia and gastroesophageal reflux in interstitial pulmonary fibrosis of obscure etiolog...

Coagulation activation accompanied by reduced anticoagulant activity is a key characteristic of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Although the importance of coagulation activation in IPF is well studied, the potential relevance of endogenous anticoagulant activity in IPF progression remains elusive. We assess the importance of the endogenous anticoagulant protein C pathway on d...

The diagnosis of pulmonary asbestosis is most often established based on clinical criteria and has both clinical and legal implications. Unfortunately, one of the confounding features in the diagnosis may be a history of cigarette abuse, which can produce interstitial opacities on chest imaging as well as diffusion defects on pulmonary function testing, criteria that are used in the diagnosis o...

Transforming growth factor-beta2-treated Ag-pulsed APC mimic APC from the immune privileged eye, and provide signals that generate regulatory T (Tr) cells and mediate peripheral tolerance. We postulated that TGF-beta2-treated Ag-pulsed APC (tolerogenic APC (tol-APC)) might also orchestrate regulation of immune mediated pathogenesis in nonimmune privileged tissues such as the lung. We used an ad...