Team
Respiratory Environmental Health projects
Reports and Findings
Toxicity of different biodiesel exhausts in primary human airway epithelial cells grown at air-liquid interface
Biodiesel is created through the transesterification of fats/oils and its usage is increasing worldwide as global warming concerns increase. Biodiesel fuel properties change depending on the feedstock used to create it.
Published research Airway Epithelial Research Respiratory Environmental HealthAzithromycin inhibits mucin secretion, mucous metaplasia, airway inflammation, and airways hyperresponsiveness in mice exposed to house dust mite extract
Excessive production, secretion, and retention of abnormal mucus is a pathological feature of many obstructive airways diseases including asthma. Azithromycin is an antibiotic that also possesses immunomodulatory and mucoregulatory activities, which may contribute to the clinical effectiveness of azithromycin in asthma.
Asthma Published research Respiratory Environmental Health Allergy Immune systemGrowth of the airway smooth muscle layer from late gestation to childhood is mediated initially by hypertrophy and subsequently hyperplasia
The airway smooth muscle (ASM) layer thickens during development. Identifying the mechanism(s) for normal structural maturation of the ASM reveals pathways susceptible to disease processes. This study characterized thickening of the ASM layer from foetal life to childhood and elucidated the underlying mechanism in terms of hypertrophy, hyperplasia and extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition.
Published research Respiratory Environmental HealthIn Vitro primary human airway epithelial whole exhaust exposure
The method outlined in this article is a customization of the whole exhaust exposure method generated by Mullins et al. (2016) using reprogrammed primary human airway epithelial cells as described by Martinovich et al. (2017). It has been used successfully to generate recently published data (Landwehr et al. 2021). The goal was to generate an exhaust exposure model where exhaust is collected from a modern engine, real-world exhaust concentrations are used and relevant tissues exposed to assess the effects of multiple biodiesel exposures.
Published research Airway Epithelial Research P4 Respiratory Health for Kids Respiratory Environmental Health