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• Dendritic Cells Spark Smoldering Inflammation In Smokers' Lungs 

Inflammation still ravages the lungs of some smokers years after they quit the habit. What sparks that smoldering destruction remained a mystery until a consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine found that certain dendritic cells in the lung - the cells that "present" a foreign antigen or protein to the immune system - provoke production of destructive T-cells that attack a key protein called elastin, leading to death of lung tissue and emphysema.

A report of their work appears in the current issue of Science Transformational Medicine. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute estimates that 2 million Americans have emphysema, most of them over the age of 50 years. People with emphysema find it harder and harder to breathe as the lung's air sacs or alveoli are destroyed, causing holes in the lung and blocking airways. They have difficulty exchanging oxygen as their lungs become less elastic. Cigarette smoking is the greatest risk factor for the disease that contributes to as many as 100,000 deaths each year.

In previous work, Dr. Farrah Kheradmand, associate professor of medicine - pulmonary and immunology at BCM, and colleagues had shown that T-helper cells and some enzymes in the lung destroyed tissue in the lungs of emphysema patients. . . .

When the embargo lifts, this report will be available at http://stm.sciencemag.org/

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