Short telomeres and pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigation of the mechanism and predisposition to pulmonary fibrosis in diseases associated with short telomeres
IRAS ID
89835
Contact name
Shreyans Gandhi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
Telomeres are protective caps at the end of chromosomes which give stability to the cell during division. Telomeres shorten with each cell division and shortened telomeres are a marker of an ‘aged’ cell. When telomeres are critically short, the ‘aged’ cell stops dividing and undergoes ‘self-programmed death’. Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a serious condition of scarring of the lungs, and is associated with short telomeres. PF is a disease of old age, where the physiological processes involved in ageing causes the telomeres to shorten. There is no satisfactory treatment for PF and it results in progressive disability with difficulty in breathing, which is often fatal. Bone marrow failure syndromes (BMFS) have short telomeres, and it’s likely short telomeres cause attrition of the precursor blood making cells within the bone marrow. Interestingly, PF is the second leading cause of death in such BMFS, however the mechanism and reasons remain unknown. We wish to study mechanisms that cause scarring of lung when telomeres are short. We will study the telomere maintenance pathways, immune responses and wound healing properties of lung cells with shortened telomeres to test the hypothesis that either abnormal wound healing in the lung cells or aberrant immune responses in immune cells with short telomeres may cause the lung to scar, rather than heal after a noxious insult.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/1865
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jan 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion