Tag: Lungs

ScienceDaily (Dec. 8, 2009) Asthmatic smokers may be able to reverse some of the damage to their lungs that exacerbates asthmatic symptoms just by putting down their cigarettes, according to research out of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

The research is published in the December 15 issue of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2009) Dr. Bernard Thיbaud lives in two very different worlds. As a specialist in the Stollery Children's Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, he cares for tiny babies, many of whom struggle for breath after being born weeks before they are due. Across town, in his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, Dr. Thיbaud dons a lab coat and peers into a microscope to examine the precise effect of stem cells on the lungs.

Gene therapy could boost the number of lungs available for transplant.

A new gene therapy treatment designed to reduce inflammation can prevent damage in donor lungs, potentially making more organs available for transplant. According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, about 1,800 people in the United States are currently waiting for a lung transplant.