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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

RAGE, inflammatory lung disease, diesel particulate matter, PM

College

Life Sciences

Department

Physiology and Developmental Biology

Abstract

The causes of high morbidity and mortality associated with inflammatory respiratory diseases are not well understood. My research project helped to shed light on cellular signaling pathways associated with inflammatory disease, particularly those caused by or worsened by air pollutants. Asthmatics, in particular, have a difficult time dealing with common pollutants found in cities, including diesel particulate matter (PM). I focused specifically on the inflammation induced by air pollutants such as diesel PM and the activation of signaling pathways initiated by their binding with the receptors for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE). RAGE is involved developmentally in the lungs and specifically involved in alveolar type II cells as they transition to alveolar type I cells necessary for gas exchange. RAGE is also activated in several lung diseases, particularly in the pathobiochemistry observed in epithelial cells in pulmonary fibrosis (Mei et al, 2007), COPD (Morbini et al. 2006), and asthma (Fu et al. 2008). Patients with COPD and asthma endure particularly severe exacerbation in their diseased state when they encounter excessive particulate air pollution exposure.

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