The lungs conceptually represent a sponge that is interposed in series in the bodies’ systemic circulation to take up oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide. As such, it matches the huge surface areas of the alveolar epithelium to the pulmonary blood capillaries. The lung’s constant exposure to the exterior necessitates a competent immune system, as evidenced by the association of clinical immunodeficiencies with pulmonary infections. From the in utero to the postnatal and adult situation, there is an inherent vital need to manage alveolar fluid reabsorption, be it postnatally, or in case of hydrostatic or permeability edema. Whereas a wealth of literature exists on the physiological basis of fluid and solute reabsorption by ion channels and water pores, only sparse knowledge is available so far on pathological situations, such as in microbial infection, acute lung injury or acute respiratory distress syndrome, and in the pulmonary reimplantation response in transplanted lungs. The aim of this review is to discuss alveolar liquid clearance in a selection of lung injury models, thereby especially focusing on cytokines and mediators that modulate ion channels. Inflammation is characterized by complex and probably time-dependent co-signaling, interactions between the involved cell types, as well as by cell demise and barrier dysfunction, which may not uniquely determine a clinical picture. This review, therefore, aims to give integrative thoughts and wants to foster the unraveling of unmet needs in future research.

The 6-minute walk test is generally considered a standard test for the evaluation of shortterm maximal physical performance. It has not been evaluated whether psychological factors, such as anxiety or depression, affect the performance or the results of the test. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether a correlation exists between psychological factors and the data from the 6-minute walking test. The study cohort consisted of 85 (♀ = 34 and ♂ = 51) 66 ± 10 (mean ± SD) year-old patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospitalized for disease exacerbation. Forced Expiratory Volume in the first second (FEV 1) (% predicted) as predictor for lung function, as well as anxiety and depression symptoms assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as psychological predictors were collected. Bivariate correlations and hierarchical linear regression models were used to analyse the correlations. Walking distance was on average 260m ± 107m and ranged from 64m to 480m. HADS was negatively correlated with 6-min walking distance (r = 0.441, p = .0009, r =-.523, p = 00006). Hierarchical linear regression showed that FEV 1 alone explained 33%, and together with the psychological variables anxiety and depression explained 42% of the variance of results from the 6-minute walking test. These findings demonstrated that 11% of the data correlated with the psychological variables alone (p = .011). The effect size for lung function (f 2 = .717) and psychological variables (f 2 = .352) were high, whereas the socio-demographic variables sex, age, educational level and BMI could not explain any additional variance in our cohort. In conclusion, our

Epilepsy and depression share common neurobiological features. In epileptic patients depression should be diagnosed early and reliably as the successful treatment has a great influence on the prognosis, quality of life and suicide risk in these individuals. In therapeutic doses, antidepressive medication with noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressants (NaSSA) or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) imparts no clinically relevant epileptogenic potential; however, it increases the quality of life and could have anticonvulsant effects in patients with epilepsy. Clomipramine, bupropion and maprotiline, however, should not be administered to patients with epilepsy as they are known to lower the seizure threshold.

Intravital microscopy of orthotopic lung tissue is technically demanding, especially for repeated investigations. Therefore, we have established a novel approach, which allows non-invasive repetitive in vivo microscopy of ectopic lung tissue in dorsal skinfold chambers. Syngeneic subpleural peripheral lung tissue and autologous endometrium (control) were transplanted onto the striated muscle within dorsal skinfold chambers of C57BL/6 mice. Grafts were analysed by intravital fluorescence microscopy over 14 days. Angiogenesis occurred in the grafts on day 3, as indicated by sinusoidal microvessels on the grafts’ edges with very slow blood flow, perifocal oedema, and haemorrhage. By day 10, lung transplants were completely revascularized, exhibited a dense network of microvessels with irregular diameters, chaotic angioarchitecture, and high blood flow. Compared to lung tissue, endometrial grafts contained a structured, glomerulus-like vessel architecture with lower blood flow. Despite missing ventilation, hypoxic vasoconstriction of the lung tissue arterioles occurred. In contrast, endometrium tissue arterioles dilated during hypoxia and constricted in hyperoxia. This demonstrates that ectopic lung grafts keep their ability for organ-specific hypoxic vasoconstriction. These findings indicate that our approach is suitable for repetitive in vivo pulmonary microcirculation analyses. The high blood flow and hypoxia-induced vasoconstriction in lung grafts suggest a physiological intrinsic vasoregulation independent of the recipient tissue.

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