Lung macrophages as mediators in lung differentiation and regeneration
Acute lung injury and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis are severe lung diseases causing irreversible lung damage with a high mortality rate and ineffective treatment approaches. Excessive inflammatory response, abnormal self-repair, and fibrosis development are critical features in both pathologies. Macrophages are demonstrated to be critical in the initiation and progression of lung pathologies, driving inflammatory response, as well as irreversible injuries, such as fibrosis. Macrophages are cells with multiple functions regulated by various mediators, such as cytokines, metabolites, proteins, and miRNA carried in extracellular vesicles, also designated secretome. Hence, besides engulfing pathogens, these cells modulate the development and tissue homeostasis, remodeling, and repair, from embryonic to adult life effects, namely in the lung. During late fetal lung development, tissue macrophages hold a lung-specific transcriptional profile determinant to normal lung formation. We aim to elucidate whether macrophages’ genetic reprogrammed to molecules belonging to the unique macrophage fetal lung-specific transcriptional profile boost immature lung differentiation and injured lung regeneration. With this, we foresaw identify potential cell-free based therapies for prematurity and acute and chronic lung diseases.
Funding Agency
Project Reference
Project Members
Catarina Barbosa-Matos
Caroline Borges-Pereira
Main Project Outcomes
S. Queirós, “Right ventricular segmentation in multi-view cardiac MRI using a unified U-net model”, in E. Puyol Antón et al. (eds) Statistical Atlases and Computational Models of the Heart. Multi-Disease, Multi-View, and Multi-Center Right Ventricular Segmentation in Cardiac MRI Challenge. STACOM 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13131, pp. 287-295, Springer, Cham, 2022.
“Best Paper Award in the M&Ms-2 Challenge”, by M&Ms2 Challenge organizers and the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society.
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Life and Health Sciences
Research Institute (ICVS)
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University of Minho,
Campus de Gualtar
4710-057 Braga
Portugal
Copyright ©2022 ICVS. All Rights Reserved
Copyright ©2022 ICVS. All Rights Reserved
Address
Life and Health Sciences
Research Institute (ICVS)
School of Medicine,
University of Minho,
Campus de Gualtar
4710-057 Braga
Portugal
Copyright ©2022 ICVS. All Rights Reserved
Address
Life and Health Sciences
Research Institute (ICVS)
School of Medicine,
University of Minho,
Campus de Gualtar
4710-057 Braga
Portugal