Professor Tracy Hussell, Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Manchester
Returning the lung to health following acute inflammation, doesn’t happen passively upon antigen removal. The molecular mechanisms that facilitate a return to homeostasis are poorly understood. Also, in chronic inflammatory disease, there is a tendency to view the process as abnormal or elevated, when they are actually normal events that do not receive the signal to stop. For example, a fibrotic response is required for lung repair, but without a stop signal will lead to fibrosis.
In this lecture, I will provide evidence that the repair process leads to pathology, because specific cells in the lung are not receiving the correct sequence of stop signals. Aberrant pathways include the production of extracellular matrix, a deficit in basement membrane, incorrect signals for basal cells and involvement of neuropeptides from epithelium.