thinking about emphysema

[maskman`]

my understanding of emphysema seems to be flawed. i thought it was because of the lung inflamation that microphages attack and invade the alveoli 100%.. but i am not 100% this is sure.

can anyone give me some more details about this please.

[jp255]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16113465

 

http://ajrcmb.atsjournals.org/content/29/1/88.long

 

The top one's ending remark is that inflammation isn't always necessary in the development of emphysema, though this doesn't really explain how emphysema is caused in the majority of cases.

 

The second link offers evidence fthat demonstrates apoptosis and oxidative stress as contributors to the development of emphysema. Oxidative stress can lead to apoptosis itself, but I don't know if it acts predominantly by causing apoptosis in emphysema. They also mention in the beginning paragraph of the introduction that it was hypothesised that inflammation contributed to the development of emphysema from the observed association of smokers' lungs and patients on alpha-1 antitrypsin to emphysema.

 

To answer your question, I do not know if inflammation has been demonstrated to be a contributing cause of emphysema. However, Oxidative stress and apoptosis look like good candidates, though I don't how much these mechanisms contribute to global/regional levels of emphysema.