Ciggie smoke 'weakens lungs' natural defense against harmful pathogen'.Byline: ANI Washington, Oct 24 (ANI): Exposure to cigarette smoke might weaken immune cells' ability to remove bacterial infections from the lungs, specifically nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI), a pathogen often associated with respiratory infections and the progression of respiratory disease, says a new study. NTHI has been found to cause invasive diseases such as meningitis, sinusitis sinusitis Inflammation of the sinuses. Acute sinusitis, usually due to infections such as the common cold, causes localized pain and tenderness, nasal obstruction and discharge, and malaise. , pneumonia, and bronchitis. It is also the pathogen most frequently isolated in the respiratory tract of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disease n. Abbr. COPD A chronic lung disease, such as asthma or emphysema, in which breathing becomes slowed or forced. (COPD COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. COPD abbr. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) ) and chronic bronchitis. Alveolar macrophages are part of the lungs' innate defense system and they play an essential role in the clearance of bacterial infections. The research team has found that cigarette smoke may disrupt the capability of alveolar macrophages to clear NTHI from the lungs. During the study, the research team from Spain and UK observed the effect of cigarette smoke in macrophage macrophage /mac·ro·phage/ (mak´ro-faj) any of the large, mononuclear, highly phagocytic cells derived from monocytes that occur in the walls of blood vessels (adventitial cells) and in loose connective tissue (histiocytes, phagocytic cell lines and human alveolar macrophages obtained from smokers and patients with COPD and found that cigarette smoke extract impaired the alveolar macrophage process. Additionally, cells exposed to cigarette smoke extract were treated with glucocorticoid glucocorticoid /glu·co·cor·ti·coid/ (-kor´ti-koid) 1. any of the group of corticosteroids predominantly involved in carbohydrate metabolism, and also in fat and protein metabolism and many other activities (e.g. , an anti-inflammatory drug commonly used to treat respiratory conditions, and results showed that the drug did not compensate for the impairment to the alveolar macrophage process caused by the cigarette smoke. "This study revealed novel effects of cigarette smoking on alveolar macrophage physiological functions which could contribute to lung bacterial colonization by opportunistic pathogens, such as NTHI," said the researchers. The study appears in journal Infection and Immunity Infection and Immunity is an academic journal published by the American Society for Microbiology. The title is commonly abbreviated IAI and the ISSN is 0019-9567 for the print version, and 1098-5522 for the electronic version. . (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion