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Biomarkers of Lung Injury
Citation:
KODAVANTI, U. P. Biomarkers of Lung Injury. Chapter 8, V.S. Vaidya and Bonventre (ed.), Biomarkers of Toxicity: A New Era in Medicine. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated, New York, NY, 1:153-197, (2010).
Impact/Purpose:
This chapter was written in response to invitation and because this allowed educational opportunity for studying current advances in filed of lung biology biomarkers research.
Description:
Unlike the hepatic, cardiovascular, nervous, or excretory organ systems, where there .ls a strong contribution of host factors or extracellular biochemical milieu in causing organ damage, the causes of lung injuries and subsequent diseases are primarily from direct environmental exposures. Because of the diversities of the chemicals and mixtures inhaled, the organ structure, the cell types, and the types of injuries to the lung, the biomarkers used to assess those site-specific injuries are numerous. There are some commonalities in the processes that govern disease pathobiology of the lung, such as inflammation, and oxidative stress; however, there are unique site-and cell-specific biomarkers that distinguish the diseases from each other and the pathologies resulting from them. Clinically, the lung injury is measured by breathing mechanics; lung computerized tomography; and analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage, sputum, plasma, urine, and biopsy specimens. Lung injury biomarkers can be classified based on the classes of chemicals, the sites of injury, the type of diseases, or the types of biomarkers. The classification based on the types of injuries is likely to cover the majority of causative factors and the ultimate pathologies that lead to disease. High-throughput proteomic and genomic approaches can be used to uncover novel biomarkers of all injuries and are used in experimental and clinical lung studies.
