title: Practical and conceptual models of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
abstract: The challenges of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the difficulties in modeling its pathology in vitro and in vivo are substantial. Integration of innate- and adaptive-type responses with processes of scarring and healing do not fit comfortably with some definitions of the immune system, and, instead, this disease is an exemplar of a network-based system that we have named "contiguous immunity." The complicated and highly interconnected networks underpinning many biological processes show features of scale-free networks. Consideration of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease pathology as a scale-free network showing features of contiguous immunity might, in the future, aid identification and targeting of potential key "hubs"-these being principal components of the disease network-manipulation of which may yield successful new therapies.
authors: Academic Unit of Respiratory Medicine, Section of Infection, Inflammation, and Immunity, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom. i.sabroe@sheffield.ac.uk
authors: Ian
authors: I
authors: Sabroe
authors: Lisa C
authors: LC
authors: Parker
authors: Steven K
authors: SK
authors: Dower
authors: Moira K B
authors: MK
authors: Whyte
mesh_terms: D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology; D008168:Lung / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 / Q000378:metabolism; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000378:metabolism; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9