Interactions between the immune system and the transplanted lungs
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the interactions between the immune system and the transplanted lungs.
IRAS ID
296641
Contact name
Andrew Fisher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Human lung transplantation is an established treatment for end-stage lung diseases in well-selected patients. The long-term success of lung allografts is poor compared to other organs because of chronic lung injury and failure. This is due to a destructive, scarring process called Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction (CLAD) for which there are few preventive or therapeutic options, most current treatments only slow down disease progression at best, leading to loss of lung function, reduced quality of life and increased risk of death.
This process of injury, scarring and loss of lung function as CLAD develops has a profound negative impact upon all lung transplants worldwide. Further research is therefore pivotal and samples from human lungs have already helped make some progress. It is therefore vital to be able to make best use of existing procedures and samples and include these in the research effort after clinical sampling needs have been fully met. Some limited extra research samples will only be obtained when all necessary clinically indicated samples have been taken.
The research carried out will help to describe the role of specific types of immune cells involved in a range of causes of injury and scarring (infection, acute rejection, chronic rejection) in newly transplanted lungs. Our aim is to understand if earlier injury from infection or acute rejection can trigger a sequence of events that lead to CLAD development. The reason to do this is to help improve treatment through patient centred research.REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/PR/0981
Date of REC Opinion
5 Nov 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion