Consider the Lung as a Sensory Organ

Abstract

At resting, an average person inhales/exhales 5–8 litters of air. This air may vary in oxygen content, carry allergen, pollutants or pathogens. To address how the lung senses and responds to these signals, we focused on pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNECs). PNECs are rare airway epithelial cells that are preferentially localized to airway branch point junctions. They are innervated by nerves, and can produce potent neuropeptides, neurotransmitters and amines. Our data suggest that proper aggregation of PNECs into neuroepithelial bodies is essential for their normal function. Disruption of PNEC clustering led to increased PNEC products and heightened baseline immune signature. We are currently testing the hypothesis that these cells serve as key nodes that mediate lung, environment, immune and nervous system interactions.Support or Funding InformationNHLBI HL119946NHLBI HL122406NICHD P01HD068250NIHOD OT2OD023857This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.