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Welcome to the Lung Biology Group

Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson  Professor tel: +4646222 33 14

Asthma afflicts large group of patients and it is a disease that is increasing in our population. This disease is induced by sensivity to different allergens but it is aggravated by smoke, dust and pollutions in our environment. The disease consist of an inflammatory stage as well as a fibrogenic stage, which leads to structural changes of the airway and formation of fibrosis, leading to a decrease in lung function. The structural changes of the tissue are regarded as one of the major causes for the chronicicty of asthma, where mesenchymal cells like fibroblasts play an important role. Similar changes in the lung that are observed in patients with asthma are also seen in patients that have developed a rejection after lung transplantation. Currently there are no good treatments for fibrosis even though the direct symptoms can be handled by available therapies.

In our investigations we are in the process to collect small sample and cells from the living patients lungs using washing techniques and specific sampling techniques. We are especially interested to investigate what cells are present in the washings and in the small lung sample such as the fibroblasts. There could be three possible sources of origin of the fibroblasts like being recruited from the 1) circulation, 2) thought epithelial mesenchymal transition or 3) cells deriving from resident cells. We have epically focused on the first alternative and believe that during development of the structural pathological changes in the lung in these groups of patients, specific cells are recruited from the circulation such as omnipotent stem cells. These cells have large plasticity and capacity to develop into various types of cells with different properties in the tissue. The omnipotent stem cells are trafficking through the CXCR4/ CXCL12 axis and the key growth factor involved in remodeling namely transforming growth factor-b (TGF-b) has shown to regulate the level of CXCR4 receptors on these cells as well as on the T-cells especially of a new subset of interleukin -17 producing cells called TH-17.

We furthermore hypothesize that the differentiation of fibrocytes can be controlled and effected by the microenvironment in the tissue. If we can control the appearance and trafficking of these cells and their differentiation by adding pharmaceuticals, we are in a good position to develop new treatments for these diseases leading decrease of lung function and sometimes also death.