Pulmonary Defense Mechanisms Flashcards
True or False: The lung is the largest epithelial surface in the body
True
Chronic disease states can happen due to two general things. What are they?
- Infection overwhelms the system (e.g. tuberculosis) 2. Pathologic responses are over exuberant and impair rather than protect the host.
What are the 3 pulmonary defense mechanisms?
- Configuration of the nasopharynx and serial branching of the airways allows for particle deposition proximal to more vulnerable alveolar structures. 2. Mucociliary clearance and cough 3. Alveolar clearance (macrophages and immune response)
Mucus is hydrated by ____ ____
epithelial fluid
What are constituents of airway epithelial fluid that help with defense, maintanance of structure and function?
- Antimicrobial peptides and proteins (e.g. B-defensins, cathelicidin, lysozyme, and lactoferrin)
- Antioxidants (glutathione)
- Antiproteases
- IgA
- Decreased pH
____ of mucus plays an important role in the pathophysiologic characteristics of various chronic airway diseases
Hypersecretion
What are 3 things that can reduce ciliary function?
- air pollution
- viral infection
- smoking
What is the genetic disorder associated with abnormal ciliary function?
Primary ciliary dyskinesia (immotile ciliary syndrome)
- autosomal recessive
- due to defects in dynein arms (a motor control protein that helps with cytoskeleton movement of cilia)
- these patients have sinusitis, bronchiectasis, situs inversus (mirrored organs), and pneumonia
- Kartagener’s syndrome which is a combination of situs inversus, chronic sinusitis, and bronchiectasis.
True or False: The hydration of mucus is very important.
True. CF patients are unable to properly hydrate their mucus so it gets thick and difficult to move.
What is a common feature of cystic fibrosis, chronic bronchitis, and asthma?
A. Dysfunctional cilia
B. Increased mucus secretion
C. Defects in ion transport
D. Caused by smoking
B. Increased mucus secretion
What do dendritic cells do in the defense mechanism?
They traffic inhaled particles to local lymph nodes to promote tolerance to common antigens
What’s the cell breakdown in a normal person’s alveolar air spaces?
Macrophages (90-95%)
Lymphocytes (less than 5%)
Eosinophils (less than 1 %)
Neutrophils (less than 1 %)
Smokers have a dramatic ____ in the number of alveolar macrophages
Increase
Which of the following is the predominant cell type in the bronchoalveolar lavage of normal subjects?
A. lymphocytes
B. macrophages
C. neutrophils
D. eosinophils
B) Macrophages
In the absence of PAMPS, what happens to inhaled particles?
Particles are taken in by dendritic cells and taken to local lymph nodes to promote tolerance to common antigens. In the alveolar spaces, macrophages take up the inhaled particles to try to maintain an anti-inflammatory state.