Helmholtz Munich

Dynamics of Pulmonary Inflammation

We want to understand the circumstances that impair pulmonary inflammation in a way to cause a long-term damage of the lung. Our goals are therapeutic nanoparticles for pulmonary application and the respiratory safety of engineered nanoparticles.

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Which circumstances impair pulmonary inflammation in a way to cause a long-term damage of the lung?
Which factors determine the transition from acute to chronic inflammation. How are alveolar macrophages involved?
What makes some environmental stimuli cause a persistent, non resolving inflammtion while other stimuli only initiate a transient irritation?
Particularly, which material properties of inhaled particles determine the particle-triggered course of inflammation?

Image: human lung organoids grown from induced stem cells

Inflammation is a very dynamic biological reaction of the tissues in response to any stimuli that is harmful to the body. To prevent unnecessary tissue damage, the acute inflammatory response must be actively terminated and resolved when no longer needed. When the inflammation lasts much longer than normal or even becomes chronic, it is usually a major destruction and replacement of the cells within the tissue suffering the inflammation. Persistent or chronic inflammation might thus been seen as a failure of resolution, and often present in patients with chronic lung diseases such as COPD. It may also lead to an imbalance in production of cytokines and growth factors and thereby trigger abnormal wound-healing responses characteristic for the fatal disorder: pulmonary fibrosis.

Image: Human iPSC generated lung organoid (nuclei in cyan) and fibroblasts (red) in co-culture