Virtual 2021

---

Innate immunity and lung epithelial repair: what really happens?

Symposium
Chairs: R. Gosens (Groningen, Netherlands), S. Meiners (Sülfeld, Germany)
Aims: to describe the mechanisms underlying epithelial barrier disruption and impaired recovery in response to environmental triggers, which are crucial for the development of novel therapeutic strategies, including stem cell-based strategies; to provide an overview of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in epithelial damage and repair as well as abnormalities of these mechanisms in lung disease and regulation of these processes by virus-induced innate immune responses; to explain the complex role of the epithelial barrier in the onset and progression of pulmonary diseases and its To potential to serve as a target for therapeutic strategies; to differentiate between epithelial cell death modalities and to describe how these contribute to lung tissue damage in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); to explain how the release of specific danger molecules upon epithelial injury, e.g., those acting on receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), can result in alveolar tissue damage and impaired lung tissue regeneration in COPD; to describe the role of innate immune responses in abnormal lung tissue regeneration upon viral infection; to describe the potential of stem cells for epithelial regeneration upon infection in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.

Epithelial cell death, tissue damage and repair: looking inside the COPD lung S. Cloonan (Dublin, Ireland)
Repairing the COPD epithelium: is ‘RAGE’ the solution? S. Pouwels (Zuidhorn, Netherlands)
Viruses and interferons: working together to injure the epithelium I. Zanoni (Boston, United States of America)
What damages the cystic fibrosis lung epithelium: host or microbe? C. Greene (Dublin 9, Ireland)
Discussion and Q&A