A lifeline for leaky lung cells .

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Pulmonary edema is a life-threatening condition characterized by abnormal accumulation of intravascular fluid in alveolar air spaces and interstitial tissues of the lungs due to vascular leakage across the alveolar-capillary barrier. Currently, there are no specific therapies to improve vascular permeability, and clinical management relies on providing supportive measures, including diuretics, vasoactive medications, maintenance of adequate nutrition, hemodynamic monitoring, and mechanical ventilation if necessary. While mechanical ventilation is usually required for the survival of patients with severely compromised lung function, these artificial breathing motions can be detrimental and further compromise the pulmonary vascular barrier as a result of overinflation of the alveoli, a form of “barotrauma” called ventilator-induced lung injury. Thus, a major challenge in pulmonary medicine is to identify molecular targets unique to lung cells that, if blocked, could prevent the increase in pulmonary vascular permeability, particularly that induced by mechanical distortion.

aip.scitation.org/doi/10.10...