Excessive accumulation of fluid, known as edema, occurs in asthma and other inflammatory diseases when fluid drainage through lymphatic vessels is overwhelmed by the amount of plasma leaking from blood vessels. It is unclear to what extent new lymph vessels are able to grow from pre-existing ones - a process known as lymphangiogenesis - in order to compensate for this overload.

Donald McDonald and fellow researchers from University of California, San Francisco, examined mice infected with Mycoplasma pulmonis or in which a viral vector had been used to deliver to the mice the potential pro-lymphangiogenic factors known as VEGF-A, -C, or -D.

The authors found extensive growth of new lymphatic vessels associated with airway inflammation after delivery of VEGF-C and -D. Surprisingly, while antibiotic therapy caused bronchial inflammation and blood vessels to regress, these new lymphatic vessels persisted.

The study also showed that impaired growth of new lymphatics during airway inflammation may lead to bronchial lymphedema, which worsens the airway swelling, obstruction, and resultant wheezing that asthmatics, for example, experience. Correction of defective lymphangiogenesis may benefit the treatment of asthma and other inflammatory airway diseases.

The study will appear online on January 20 in advance of print publication in the February 1 edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

TITLE: Pathogenesis of persistent lymphatic vessel hyperplasia in chronic airway inflammation.

AUTHOR CONTACT: Donald M. McDonald
Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
Phone: 415-476-2118; Fax: 415-476-4845; E-mail: dmcditsa.ucsf.edu.

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci/press/22037.pdf

From 5:00PM USA EST Thursday January 20, 2005 a PDF of this article will be available at
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Brooke Grindlinger
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Journal of Clinical Investigation