Characterisation of lung immune cells in health and disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Characterisation of lung immune cells in health and disease
IRAS ID
168772
Contact name
Mahdad Noursadeghi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2015/03/07, UCL Data Protection
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
Respiratory conditions are a significant cause of disease worldwide. These include viral, bacterial and fungal respiratory tract infections, a wide range of primary or interstitial lung diseases, obstructive airway diseases as a consequence of asthma, smoking or bronchiectasis, and lung cancer. In order to improve our understanding of these diseases, it is essential to obtain immune cells from the lung by bronchoscopy. Bronchoscopy is routinely carried out for the investigation of respiratory diseases. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid is taken as a routine part of the bronchoscopy and contains lung immune cells.
In the lung, alveolar macrophages are found in the air spaces known as alveoli. Alveolar macrophages are more abundant than any other immune cells at this site. Inflammation at the site of infection principally arises from initial immune responses by these resident macrophages and another type of immune cell, dendritic cells. It is therefore essential to obtain genuine alveolar macrophages to study their normal immunological functions and dysfunctions in disease states. This will contribute to our understanding of the pathogenesis of respiratory disease and may lead to the development of novel therapeutics.
BAL also contains lymphocytes which are important immune cells that can interact with macrophages both directly and indirectly through cytokine (proteins important in cell signalling) networks. Therefore, the use of BAL to obtain alveolar macrophages has the additional advantage of providing lymphocytes and lavage fluid cytokines which are present as a result of any in vivo (within patient) immune responses that are taking place in the lung at the time of sampling.
REC name
East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EE/0138
Date of REC Opinion
26 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion