Rising Respiratory Diseases in Children: How the Immune System Can Improve Lung Health According to New Research?

Healthy lung development may depend on communication between immune cells and cells lining the airways, according to a new study.

The immune and respiratory systems coordinate much earlier than previously thought, according to a study that raises hopes for tackling respiratory diseases in early childhood. Globally, respiratory diseases are responsible for almost 20 percent of all deaths in children under the age of five.

The research from University College London and the Wellcome Sanger Institute showed that healthy lung development depends on communication between immune cells and cells that line the airways. The study, published in Science Immunology, has created a unique atlas of immune cells of the developing lung.

This discovery raises questions about the potential role of immune cells in other developing organs in the body and provides new insights for understanding and treating respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

“Our research shows that there is a symbiotic relationship between immune cells and the developing fetal lungs – some immune cells use the lungs as a developmental niche, in preparation for exposure to an attack of pathogens at birth, while other immune cells help shape lung tissue . ” says Dr Jo Barnes, from the UCL Division of Medicine.

“The knowledge that immune cells can influence tissue modeling in the developing lungs opens the door to potential regenerative therapies not only in the lungs, but also in other human organs,” he added.

Recent discoveries confirm the presence of immune cells in human lungs after just five weeks of development.

To investigate whether the immune system could influence how the lungs grow, the team studied immune cells in early human lungs from 5 to 22 weeks of development.

They used various techniques, including single-cell sequencing and experiments with lung cell cultures, to see whether immune cells could influence the development of lung cells.

The team discovered that immune cells play an active role in directing the growth of human lung tissue during development.

They also discovered an infiltration of innate immune cells, followed by adaptive immune cells.

The findings fundamentally change the understanding of the immune and epithelial interactions that are crucial for fetal lung maturation.

They also suggest that early immune disorders could manifest as lung disease in children.