Final Report Summary - HA-NFKB-VILI (Hypercapnic Acidosis and NF-kB in Ventilator Induced Lung Injury: Developing strategies to minimize lung injury and facilitate repair.)
The HA-NFkB-VILI project was established, under the generous support of the European Research Council, to investigate the mechanisms by which the lung is injured by prolonged ventilation and other forms of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The secondary purpose was to look at the effects of altered gas compositions, in this case increasing levels of carbon dioxide, as an anti-inflammatory and pro-healing agent in the lung. Gene therapy intervention options, both anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory were also explored. Finally, within a critical mass of research in the field of adult stem cell therapeutics at NUI Galway, we have demonstrated the profound beneficial effects of the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) in various lung injury models, benefits which we are now pushing to move forward to human clinical trials for treatment of this devastating disease.