Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh researchers have identified a highly specific pathway that causes inflammation in lung tissue, a discovery that could help in the design of more targeted treatments for patients with various lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis (CF). Their results, which also confirmed this novel pathway may contribute to lung damage in adult patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), are being published in the July issue of The Journal of Immunology. Jay K. Kolls, MD, who is the division chief of Pediatric Pulmonology, Laboratory of Lung Immunology and Host Defense at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and professor of Pediatrics and Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and his research team measured mediators of inflammation in cystic fibrosis patients, focusing on interleukin 23 (IL-23) and interleukin-17 (IL-17).
