Service Project 1: Preservation of cells in BAL
Published on: Wednesday 05, October 2011BioCoR
Lung disease is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. There is no marker to identify patients at risk for developing specific lung diseases including chronic lung rejection, interstitial pulmonary fibrosis and fibroproliferative disorder associated with acute lung injury. In addition, there are no consistently effective treatments for these lung diseases. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is a medical procedure in which a bronchoscope is passed through the mouth or nose and into the lungs. A fluid (typically normal saline) is used to wash the lung and that solution is then recollected. This type of biospecimen is of great value because it results from direct contact with the organ of interest (in contrast to plasma and serum which may contain biomarkers from organ systems all over the body). BAL consists of both a cellular and non-cellular component.
Unfortunately, several technical obstacles prevent the development of a clinical assay based on the cells present in the lung that can be sampled using lavage. First of all, the cells lose viability rapidly with time post collection and most samples need to be processed within an hour after collection. In addition, the ability to cryopreserve cells in BAL would facilitate once again collection of cells from different clinical locations; cells from a single patient followed longitudinally and transport the cells to the site of research.
