Apoptotic Cell (AC) Uptake by Human Alveolar Macrophages (AM)

VA Office of Research and Development

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Treatments: Procedure: Fiberoptic bronchoscopy; Procedure: intravenous catheter; Procedure: blood draw

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT01099410

Curtis 0015

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to compare the ability of two types of white blood cells to eat dead host cells, and how this process affects their ability to protect the body from infection. The two cell types are monocytes, a cell in the bloodstream, and alveolar macrophages, a cell in the lung that is ultimately derived from monocytes

Full description

Volunteers, who may be Veterans or non-Veterans, will be screened by a series of questionnaires, chest X-ray, spirometry, EKG, blood work, and a complete history and physician examination by a study physician. Those who qualify for the study and agree via informed consent, will undergo a fiberoptic bronchoscopy on a separate day for the initial visit. Bronchoscopy is a procedure in which a flexible video instrument is passed via the nose or mouth, through the vocal cords and into the lungs. During the procedure, portions of the lungs will be washed ("lavaged") with a salt water solution, to collect the alveolar macrophages. This procedure involves conscious sedation, so that a driver is required on the day of the bronchoscopy. The entire procedure, including placement of an intravenous line to administer medications, local anesthetics, the bronchoscopy itself, and the recovery period, takes about 2.5-3 hours. The cells collected by bronchoscopy will be studied in the research laboratory, and used entirely in that procedure.

Enrollment: 17 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 80 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Veteran or non-Veteran
• Able to give informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• Unstable heart disease
• Other systemic disease and unlikely to survive at least 2 years
• Mental incompetence
• Prednisone >20 mg/day
• Participation in another interventional protocol within last 6 weeks
• Asthma
• Cystic fibrosis
• Clinically significant bronchiectasis
• Lung cancer or any cancer not in remission for at least 5 years
• Other inflammatory or fibrotic lung disease
• Use of antibiotics for a lung infection within the past 4 weeks
• Autoimmune disease, i.e., Rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, autoimmune hepatitis, Crohn's disease or other

Trial design

17 participants in 1 patient group

Group 1

Description:

volunteer subjects

Treatment:

Procedure: blood draw

Procedure: Fiberoptic bronchoscopy

Procedure: intravenous catheter