Inflammation in the Pathogenesis of Pulmonary Hypertension

Hypoxia is a powerful pulmonary artery constrictor and common in patients with severe PH.

The CVBRU has funded a four year PhD student, Miss Selina Parmar, to work with Dr Sarah Walmsley, Wellcome Clinician Scientist, and Professor Moira Whyte to study “Inflammation in the Pathogenesis of Pulmonary Hypertension”.

The aim is to investigate whether co-culture of human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (hPA-SMCs) and monocytes results in modified cytokine release, which may be important in disease pathogenesis and its response to physiological hypoxia and HIF activation. The data so far shows hypoxia (pO2 3kPa) significantly increases PA-SMC cell numbers and extends monocyte survival identifies novel roles for monocytes in regulating PA-SMC phenotype in hypoxia.

Studies of patient leukocytes have been initiated by Dr Roger Thompson, MRC Clinical Training Fellow. Understanding the role monocytes play is essential for developing current understanding of idiopathic PH and could provide therapeutic targets for drug development.

We will examine these findings in the peripheral blood white cell RNA from the CVBRU PH collection and the effects of oxygen therapy on inflammatory markers in these patients.