Cell and Gene Therapy

Cell Therapy in Pulmonology:

The human lung has a surface area of 35–100 m2 (inflation status-dependent) allowing efficient exchange of oxygen required for oxidative metabolism.This contact area is exposed to airborne toxins and micro-organisms and their products. Despite these constant insults, in healthy individuals the lung is able to regulate immune reactions (upregulation and down-modulation of responses) and to control tissue plasticity needed for repair after injury, allowing the maintenance of homeostasis. Although the aetiologies of various lung diseases are still unclear, their complex pathology is in many cases associated with dysregulation in immune responses (e.g. chronic inflammation in chronic pulmonary disease) and aberrant repair processes of lung tissue e.g. idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.