L15 Lung Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
You visit an 80year old NZ European woman in a private hospital with the GP you are shadowing. she has a fever and is coughing up purulent sputum. She is in the private hospital because of dementia and has been a resident for the past 3 years. She is an ex-smoker. A mobile chest radiograph taken in the private hospital shows ‘confluent shadowing in the left lower lobe and a left-sided pleural effusion)
Pneumonia
confirmed by chest radiograph showing shadowing
Pneumonia presentation
Imbalance between
- Defence mechanisms
- Microbial Insult
4x Lung Defence mechanisms
- Need to preserve “sterile” environment at alveolar level
- “Direct” communication with the external environment
- Numerous potential “insults”
- High ventilation rate (5Lrest, 20L exercise), particularly during exertion
Issues with lung transplantation
- “Direct” communication with the external environment
- Numerous potential “insults”
- leads to issues with lung transplantation
- vs solid organs enclosed in body
- greater rate of rejection and infection
Microbiome
Microbiome: totality of microbes; bacteria, viruses, fungi.
New culture-independent technologies
Community profiling (based on amplification of 16S rRNA – bacteria)
Shotgun Metagenomics. (Human Microbiome Project)
-produce mega data
Airway Microbiome
LRT(Lower Respiratory Tract) is not sterile.
- Healthy microbiome protects against disease
- Altered microbiome (dysbiosis) in diseases (causes inflammation, damage and overt disease); spatial and longitudinal assessment of microbiome
- Aberrant microbiome – inflammation – disease
- Cross-talk between lung and gut microbiome (lung is outgrowth of foregut) (occurs from neonatal period and continues)
- Effects of treatment on microbiome ; antibiotics and other
- Role of modification ; probiotics (restoration of gut/lung microbiome)
Sterile nature of Lower Respiratory tract
Not sterile
Have to go through upper respiratory tract difficult to sample whilst avoiding contamination
Upper airways defence mechanisms
- Effective coordinated swallowing mechanism (oesophagus not trachea)
- Protection of lower airway by epiglottis and glottis
- Cough
- Sneeze
- deranged: unwanted material into lung causing inflammation or infection
Microbiologic insult
- Aliquot of organisms; dentition and presence of gingival disease
- Virulence of organism e.g. influenza
- microaspirations, (how variable were the organisms and how many organisms were there)
- number of organisms influenced by what type of disease (gum/bad dentition = anarobes and microphilic organisms = more likely to get LRT infection after microaspirations)
Particles
- Microorganisms
- “dust”; PM10(air pollution)
- Allergens: pollen (large, pine pollen cause cause hay-fever(nose) not asthma(airways))
- Therapeutic (deposit particles in airways. narrow size distribution)
1. Droplets (wet nebulisers)
2. Suspensions(inhalers); pMDI
3. Dry powder
4. Specialised; Pulmospheres (engineered nanoparticles. liposomes(fat droplets w. drug inside))
Deposition of particles in the lung By impaction and Sedimentation
URT infection protection related to impaction on airway surface removed by mucociliary escalator (where depends on size) a) Physical Defense Mechanisms Nose= particles >10u (humidfy + removal of particulates.) -Turbanents a) large SA b) generate turbanent flow inspired air has to do 90degree turn to enter lungs, impact oropharynx airways= particles 5-10u 1. Upper airway filtering 2. Reflexes - cough and sneeze 3. Mucociliary escalator b) Cellular Defense Mechanisms Alveolar: Particles
Other factors other than particle size
size
absorb water?
electrostatic charge
Muco-ciliary clearance
Mucus layer + cilia + epithelial cell mucociliary escalatory cilia are on epithelial cells cilia beat within the peri-ciliary fluid interact with overlying mucus layer
Ciliary Function
- Ciliated cells to 17th generation of airways
- > 200 cilia per epithelial cell
- Effective (move mucus layer forward) and recovery (peri-ciliary fluid) stroke
- Continuous and coordinated ciliary action: via intracellular signalling
- Mucus and sol
- Role in “chemo-sensing” the microenvironment: includes Sonic-Hedgehog