Scientist Discovers Clue In Mysterious Lung Disease

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 31 Oct 2007 - 4:00 PDT

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Even though it affects more than 5 million people world-wide,* pulmonary fibrosis remains a mysterious and incurable disease. A recent discovery could someday change that. Researchers have uncovered a clue as to how this devastating lung disease is formed, and how they might try to stop it.

He may not be able to exercise like he used to, and he may have to use oxygen when he does, but William Griffith refuses to let pulmonary fibrosis take over his life.

"I've not allowed it to. I've done as much as I think I can do physically," says Griffith.

Which is remarkable considering William is reminded of his condition with every breath he takes. Scar tissue is slowly building up in his lungs and cutting off his air, and doctors aren't exactly sure why. But Clay Marsh, MD, and a team of researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center may have uncovered a clue. They found lungs with pulmonary fibrosis contain large amounts of a human growth factor called m-csf. Normally, it is vital to good health.

"Without this factor our bones don't form. If you're a woman, you can't make milk. In babies, the teeth don't form right," says Dr. Marsh.

But if you have too much of it in the lungs, you get pulmonary fibrosis. Marsh says this is the first time researchers have identified these growth factor cells as a part of the problem. Part of the reason is that these cells can apparently take on different forms.

"There's evidence that these cells, once they get to the lung, may be able to transform, much like a chameleon could, and really perform much different functions than was previously ascribed to these cells," says Dr. Marsh.

So instead of acting as a growth factor, they might be causing some of the damage. It's just a first step in understanding this mysterious disease, but William hopes it will touch off a domino effect that might someday lead to a cure.

The next step is to develop ways to control the m-csf growth factor so that it does what it is supposed to do and nothing else. Marsh's study was published recently in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

*What is Pulmonary Fibrosis?, Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, October 2007

http://www.osu.edu