Cigarette smoke exposure exacerbates lung inflammation and compromises immunity to bacterial infection.

ABSTRACT: The detrimental impact of tobacco on human health is clearly recognized, and despite aggressive efforts to prevent smoking, close to one billion individuals worldwide continue to smoke. People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are susceptible to recurrent respiratory infections with pathogens, including nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI), yet the reasons for this increased susceptibility are poorly understood. Because mortality rapidly increases with multiple exacerbations, development of protective immunity is critical to improving patient survival. Acute NTHI infection has been studied in the context of cigarette smoke exposure, but this is the first study, to our knowledge, to investigate chronic infection and the generation of adaptive immune responses to NTHI after chr

SUBMITTER: Lugade AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4066560 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature