Bay Biosciences provides high-quality biopsy tissue samples, formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue blocks, with matched fresh frozen sera (serum), plasma, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) bio-fluids, from patients diagnosed with interstitial lung disease (ILD).
The sera (serum), plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) biofluid specimens are processed from patients peripheral whole-blood using customized collection and processing protocols from interstitial lung disease (ILD).
Fresh frozen tissue and matched biofluid samples were, collected from unique patients diagnosed with interstitial lung disease (ILD).
Bio-samples are provided to a valued pharmaceutical customer for research, diagnostics, discovery, and drug development.
Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) includes over 200 different conditions that cause inflammation and scarring (fibrosis) around the balloon-like air sacs in your lungs, called the alveoli.
Oxygen travels through the alveoli into the bloodstream. When they’re scarred, these sacs can’t expand as much. As a result, less oxygen enters the blood.
The scarring causes stiffness in the lungs which makes it difficult to breathe and get oxygen to the bloodstream. Lung damage from ILDs is often irreversible and gets worse over time.
Other parts of the lungs can be affected too, such as the airways, lung lining, and blood vessels.
Anyone can get interstitial lung disease, including children. Many things can increase the risk of or cause ILDs including genetics, certain medications or medical treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy.
Exposure to hazardous materials has been linked to ILDs such as asbestosis and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Patients with autoimmune diseases such as sarcoidosis or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are also at increased risk of developing an Interstitial lung disease ILD.
Smoking can not only cause ILDs, but can make the condition much worse, which is why anyone diagnosed is strongly encouraged to quit. Unfortunately, in many cases, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the causes may be unknown.
The most common symptom of all ILDs is shortness of breath. This is often accompanied by a dry cough, chest discomfort, fatigue and occasionally weight loss.
In most cases, by the time the symptoms appear lung damage has already been done so it is important to see your doctor immediately. Severe cases that are left untreated can develop life-threatening complications including high blood pressure (hypertension), heart or respiratory failure.
Types of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
There are over 200 different types of interstitial lung disease. Some of these include the following:
- Asbestosis: Inflammation and scarring in the lungs caused by breathing in asbestos fibers
- Bronchiolitis obliterans: a condition that causes blockages in the smallest airways of the lungs, called bronchioles.
- Coal worker’s pneumoconiosis: a lung condition caused by exposure to coal dust (also called black lung disease).
- Chronic silicosis: a lung disease caused by breathing in the mineral silica.
- Connective tissue-related pulmonary fibrosis: a lung disease that affects some people with connective tissue diseases, such as scleroderma or Sjögren’s Syndrome.
- Desquamative interstitial pneumonitis: a condition that causes lung inflammation and that is more common in patients who smoke.
- Familial pulmonary fibrosis: a buildup of scar tissue in the lungs that affects two or more members of the same family.
- Hypersensitivity pneumonitis: inflammation of the alveoli caused by breathing in allergic substances or other irritants.
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF): a disease of unknown cause in which scar tissue develops throughout the lung tissue.
- Sarcoidosis: a disease that causes small clumps of inflammatory cells to form in organs such as the lungs and lymph glands.
Signs and Symptoms of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
The most common symptomatic complaint voiced by ILD patients is progressive dyspnea. This usually begins with exercise and over time progresses to dyspnea at rest. When patients can’t get enough oxygen into the blood. This can cause several symptoms, which include the following:
- Bleeding in the lungs
- Chest pain and discomfort
- Dizziness
- Dry cough
- Decreased appetite
- Fast and difficult breathing
- Fatigue
- Shortness of breath especially with activity (exercising or climbing stairs)
- Unexplained Weight Loss
- Weakness
Symptoms can range in severity and may be similar to those associated with other respiratory conditions or health problems.
Cough and fatigue are also common complaints. Most patients have abnormalities noted on chest radiographs, although approximately 10% of patients with ILD will present with dyspnea and a normal chest radiograph. Office spirometry testing typically shows abnormalities in lung function.
Causes of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) possibly develops when an injury to the lungs triggers an abnormal healing response. Normally, the body generates just the right amount of tissue to repair damage.
But in interstitial lung disease, the repair process goes awry and the tissue around the air sacs (alveoli) becomes scarred and thickened. This makes it more difficult for oxygen to pass into the bloodstream.
Interstitial lung disease can be triggered by many different things, including airborne toxins in the workplace, drugs and some types of medical treatments. In most cases, the causes are unknown.
Occupational and Environmental Factors
Long-term exposure to a number of toxins and pollutants can damage the lungs. These may include the following:
- Asbestos fibers
- Bird and animal droppings
- Grain dust
- Indoor hot tubs
- Radiation treatments
- Silica dust
Some people who receive radiation therapy for lung or breast cancer show signs of lung damage months or sometimes years after the initial treatment.
Medications
Many drugs can damage your lungs, especially:
- Chemotherapy drugs: Drugs designed to kill cancer cells, such as methotrexate (Otrexup, Trexall, others) and cyclophosphamide, can also damage lung tissue.
- Heart medications: Some drugs used to treat irregular heartbeats, such as amiodarone (Nexterone, Pacerone) or propranolol (Inderal, Innopran), may harm lung tissue.
- Some antibiotics: Nitrofurantoin (Macrobid, Macrodantin, others) and ethambutol (Myambutol) can cause lung damage.
- Anti-inflammatory drugs: Certain anti-inflammatory drugs, such as rituximab (Rituxan) or sulfasalazine (Azulfidine), can cause lung damage.
Medical Conditions
Lung damage can also result from autoimmune diseases such as:
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Scleroderma
- Dermatomyositis and polymyositis
- Mixed connective tissue disease
- Sjogren’s syndrome
- Sarcoidosis
The list of substances and conditions that can lead to interstitial lung disease is long. Even so, in some cases, the causes are never found. Disorders without a known cause are grouped together under the label of idiopathic interstitial pneumonias, the most common and deadly of which is Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Risk Factors of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
Following factors may make you more susceptible to interstitial lung disease:
- Age: Interstitial lung disease is much more likely to affect adults, although infants and children sometimes develop the disorder.
- Exposure to occupational and environmental toxins: Individuals who work in mining, farming or construction or for any reason are exposed to pollutants known to damage the lungs, their risk of interstitial lung disease is increased.
- Gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) disease: If you have uncontrolled acid reflux or indigestion, you may be at increased risk of interstitial lung disease.
- Smoking: Some forms of interstitial lung disease are more likely to occur in people with a history of smoking, and active smoking may make the condition worse, especially if there is associated emphysema.
- Radiation and chemotherapy: Exposure to radiation treatments to the chest or using some chemotherapy drugs makes it more likely that you’ll develop lung disease.
Complications of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
Interstitial lung disease can lead to a series of life-threatening complications, including:
- High blood pressure in the lungs (pulmonary hypertension): Unlike systemic high blood pressure, this condition affects only the arteries in the lungs. It begins when scar tissue or low oxygen levels restrict the smallest blood vessels, limiting blood flow in the lungs. This in turn raises pressure within the pulmonary arteries. Pulmonary hypertension is a serious illness that becomes progressively worse.
- Right-sided heart failure (cor pulmonale): This serious condition occurs when your heart’s lower right chamber (right ventricle) , which is less muscular than the left, has to pump harder than usual to move blood through obstructed pulmonary arteries. Eventually the right ventricle fails from the extra strain. This is often a consequence of pulmonary hypertension.
- Respiratory Failure: In the end stage of chronic interstitial lung disease, respiratory failure occurs when severely low blood oxygen levels along with rising pressures in the pulmonary arteries and the right ventricle cause heart failure.
Diagnosis of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
In addition to a complete medical history and physical exam, the healthcare provider may also request pulmonary function tests. These tests help to measure the lungs’ ability to move air into and out of the lungs. They may include the following:
Spirometry
A spirometer is a device used to check lung function. Spirometry is one of the simplest, most common tests. It may be used to:
- Determine how well the lungs receive, hold, and move air
- Look for lung disease
- See how well treatment is working
- Determine the severity of a lung disease
- Find out whether the lung disease is restrictive (decreased airflow) or obstructive (disruption of airflow)
Peak flow monitoring
This device is used to measure the how fast you can blow air out of the lungs. Disease-related changes can cause the large airways in the lungs to slowly narrow. This will slow the speed of air leaving the lungs. This measurement is very important in evaluating how well or how poorly the disease is being controlled.
Chest X-rays
This test takes pictures of internal tissues, bones, and organs.
Blood tests
Arterial blood gas may be done to check the amount of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the blood. Other blood tests may be used to look for possible infections.
CT scan
This test uses a combination of X-rays and computer technology to produce horizontal, or axial, images (often called slices) of the body. CT scans are more detailed than regular X-rays.
Bronchoscopy
This is direct exam of the main airways of the lungs (bronchi) using a flexible tube called a bronchoscope.
Bronchoscopy helps to evaluate and diagnose lung problems, check blockages, take out samples of tissue or fluid, and help remove a foreign body. Bronchoscopy may include a biopsy or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL).
Bronchoalveolar Lavage (BAL)
Removing cells from the lower respiratory tract to help identify inflammation and exclude certain causes.
Lung Biopsy
Removing a small piece of tissue from the lung so it can be examined under a microscope.
Treatment of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
Because there are so many causes, treatment will vary. Some interstitial lung diseases do not have a cure. Treatment is aimed at preventing more lung scarring, managing symptoms, and helping you stay active and healthy. Treatment can’t fix lung scarring that has already occurred.
Treatments may include the following:
- Lung transplant
- Oral medicine, including corticosteroids to reduce inflammation and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) to suppress the immune system
- Oxygen therapy, from portable containers
- Pulmonary rehab
The treatment you get depends on the type of ILD you have and its cause.
Antibiotics: These treat most interstitial pneumonias. Pneumonias caused by a virus usually get better on their own. Pneumonias caused by a fungus are rare but are treated with antifungal drugs.
Corticosteroids: In some forms of interstitial lung disease, inflammation in the lungs causes damage and scarring. Corticosteroids cause the immune system’s activity to slow. This lessens the amount of inflammation in the lungs and the rest of your body.
Inhaled oxygen: If you have low oxygen levels because of interstitial lung disease, inhaled oxygen may help the symptoms. Regular use of oxygen might also protect your heart from damage caused by low oxygen levels.
Lung transplant: In advanced interstitial lung disease that has severely impaired the patients, they may need a lung transplant. Most patients who have a lung transplant for interstitial lung disease make large gains in their quality of life and their ability to exercise.
N-acetylcysteine (Mucomyst). This potent antioxidant may slow the decline of lung function in some forms of interstitial lung disease. This is given in combination with other treatments.
Other drugs are considered controversial for interstitial lung disease treatment, including:
- Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan)
- Cyclosporine
- Methotrexate
- Nintedanib (Ofev)
- Pirfenidone (Esbriet)
These medicines affect the way your immune system works. If your doctor thinks you need one, they’ll keep a close watch on you while you’re taking it. These medications can have serious side effects.
Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.
Samples available include cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types.
Our biobank procures and stores fully consented, deidentified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.
All our human tissue collections, human specimens and human bio-fluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.
This critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.
Patient’s data is extremely valuable for researchers and is used to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, and other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples, including cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.
Including fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC.
Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.
Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.
Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:
- Peripheral whole-blood
- Amniotic fluid
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- Sputum
- Pleural effusion
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- Serum (sera)
- Plasma
- Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC)
- Saliva
- Buffy coat
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- Aqueous humor
- Vitreous humor
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- Other bodily fluids from most diseases including cancer.
We can also procure most human bio-specimens, special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.
In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, and PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols; you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.
Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.
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