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E-cigarette use has rapidly increased as an alternative means of nicotine delivery by heated aerosolization. Recent studies demonstrate nicotine-containing e-cigarette aerosols can have immunosuppressive and pro-inflammatory effects, but it remains unclear how e-cigarettes and the constituents of e-liquids may impact acute lung injury and the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by viral pneumonia. Therefore, in these studies, mice were exposed one hour per day over nine consecutive days to aerosol generated by the clinically-relevant tank-style Aspire Nautilus aerosolizing e-liquid containing a mixture of vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol (VG/PG) with or without nicotine. Exposure to the nicotine-containing aerosol resulted in clinically-relevant levels of plasma cotinine, a nicotine-derived metabolite, and an increase in the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-17A, CXCL1, and MCP-1 in the distal airspaces. Following the e-cigarette exposure, mice were intranasally inoculated with influenza A virus (H1N1 PR8 strain). Exposure to aerosols generated from VG/PG with and without nicotine caused greater influenza-induced production in the distal airspaces of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ, TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-17A, and MCP-1 at 7 days post inoculation (dpi). Compared to the aerosolized carrier VG/PG, in mice exposed to aerosolized nicotine there was a significantly lower amount of Mucin 5 subtype AC (MUC5AC) in the distal airspaces and significantly higher lung permeability to protein and viral load in lungs at 7 dpi with influenza. Additionally, nicotine caused relative downregulation of genes associated with ciliary function and fluid clearance and an increased expression of pro-inflammatory pathways at 7 dpi. These results show that (1) the e-liquid carrier VG/PG increases the pro-inflammatory immune responses to viral pneumonia and that (2) nicotine in an e-cigarette aerosol alters the transcriptomic response to pathogens, blunts host defense mechanisms, increases lung barrier permeability, and reduces viral clearance during influenza infection. In conclusion, acute exposure to aerosolized nicotine can impair clearance of viral infection and exacerbate lung injury, findings that have implications for the regulation of e-cigarette products.

Rationale: Cigarette smoke exposure is associated with an increased risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in trauma, transfusion, and nonpulmonary sepsis. It is unknown whether this relationship exists in the general sepsis population. Furthermore, it is unknown if patients with ARDS have differences in underlying biology based on smoking status. Objectives: To assess the relationship between cigarette smoke exposure and ARDS in sepsis and identify tobacco-related biomarkers of lung injury. Methods: We studied a prospective cohort of 592 patients with sepsis from 2009 to 2017. Plasma cotinine and urine NNAL [urine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol] were measured to categorize smoking status. Plasma biomarkers of inflammation and lung injury were measured, including in a smaller cohort of trauma patients with ARDS to increase generalizability. Measurements and Main Results: Passive and active smoking were associated with increased odds of developing ARDS in patients with sepsis. Among patients with sepsis and ARDS, active cigarette smokers were younger and had lower severity of illness than nonsmokers. Patients with ARDS with cigarette smoke exposure had lower plasma levels of IL-8 (P = 0.01) and sTNFR-1 (soluble tumor necrosis factor 1; P = 0.01) compared with those without exposure. Similar biomarker patterns were observed in blunt trauma patients with ARDS. Conclusions: Passive and active smoking are associated with an increased risk of developing ARDS in patients with pulmonary and nonpulmonary sepsis. Among patients with ARDS, those with cigarette smoke exposure have less systemic inflammation, while active smokers also have lower severity of illness compared with nonsmokers, suggesting that smoking contributes to biological heterogeneity in ARDS.

BackgroundLimited studies have functionally evaluated the heterogeneity in early ex vivo immune responses during sepsis. Our aim was to characterize early sepsis ex vivo functional immune response heterogeneity by studying whole blood endotoxin responses and derive a transcriptional metric of ex vivo endotoxin response.MethodsBlood collected within 24 h of hospital presentation from 40 septic patients was divided into two fractions and incubated with media (unstimulated) or endotoxin. Supernatants and cells were isolated, and responses measured using: supernatant cytokines, lung endothelial permeability after supernatant exposure, and RNA expression. A transcriptomic signature was derived in unstimulated cells to predict the ex vivo endotoxin response. The signature was tested in a separate cohort of 191 septic patients to evaluate for association with clinical outcome. Plasma biomarkers were quantified to measure in vivo host inflammation.ResultsEx vivo response to endotoxin varied and was unrelated to immunosuppression, white blood cell count, or the causative pathogen. Thirty-five percent of patients demonstrated a minimal response to endotoxin, suggesting early immunosuppression. High ex vivo cytokine production by stimulated blood cells correlated with increased in vitro pulmonary endothelial cell permeability and was associated with attenuated in vivo host inflammation. A four-gene signature of endotoxin response detectable without the need for a functional assay was identified. When tested in a separate cohort of septic patients, its expression was inversely associated with hospital mortality.ConclusionsAn attenuated ex vivo endotoxin response in early sepsis is associated with greater host in vivo inflammation and a worse clinical outcome.

BackgroundEnrichment strategies improve therapeutic targeting and trial efficiency, but enrichment factors for sepsis trials are lacking. We determined whether concentrations of soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-1 (sTNFR1), interleukin-8 (IL8), and angiopoietin-2 (Ang2) could identify sepsis patients at higher mortality risk and serve as prognostic enrichment factors.MethodsIn a multicenter prospective cohort study of 400 critically ill septic patients, we derived and validated thresholds for each marker and expressed prognostic enrichment using risk differences (RD) of 30-day mortality as predictive values. We then used decision curve analysis to simulate the prognostic enrichment of each marker and compare different prognostic enrichment strategies.Measurements and main resultsAn admission sTNFR1 concentration > 8861 pg/ml identified patients with increased mortality in both the derivation (RD 21.6%) and validation (RD 17.8%) populations. Among immunocompetent patients, an IL8 concentration > 94 pg/ml identified patients with increased mortality in both the derivation (RD 17.7%) and validation (RD 27.0%) populations. An Ang2 level > 9761 pg/ml identified patients at 21.3% and 12.3% increased risk of mortality in the derivation and validation populations, respectively. Using sTNFR1 or IL8 to select high-risk patients improved clinical trial power and efficiency compared to selecting patients with septic shock. Ang2 did not outperform septic shock as an enrichment factor.ConclusionsThresholds for sTNFR1 and IL8 consistently identified sepsis patients with higher mortality risk and may have utility for prognostic enrichment in sepsis trials.

BackgroundTreatment with bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) has shown benefits in preclinical models of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Safety has not been established for administration of MSCs in critically ill patients with ARDS. We did a phase 2a trial to assess safety after administration of MSCs to patients with moderate to severe ARDS.MethodsWe did a prospective, double-blind, multicentre, randomised trial to assess treatment with one intravenous dose of MSCs compared with placebo. We recruited ventilated patients with moderate to severe ARDS (ratio of partial pressure of oxygen to fractional inspired oxygen

The article discusses the establishment of trustworthiness criteria for meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. Editors of OBGYN journals collaborated to develop quality criteria for RCTs, aiming to exclude low-quality or fabricated studies from meta-analyses. The criteria include aspects such as registration, ethical approval, adherence to CONSORT guidelines, and data sharing. Authors conducting meta-analyses are encouraged to confirm these criteria for each RCT and report only high-quality studies in their analyses to ensure the integrity and reliability of the results. [Extracted from the article]

Evidence is accumulating that exposure to cigarette smoke (CS) increases the risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause of bacterial pneumonia, which in turn is the leading cause of ARDS. Chronic smokers have increased rates of pneumococcal colonization and develop more severe pneumococcal pneumonia than nonsmokers; yet mechanistic connections between CS exposure, bacterial pneumonia, and ARDS pathogenesis remain relatively unexplored. We exposed mice to 3 wk of moderate whole body CS or air, followed by intranasal inoculation with an invasive serotype of S. pneumoniae. CS exposure alone caused no detectable lung injury or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) inflammation. During pneumococcal infection, CS-exposed mice had greater survival than air-exposed mice, in association with reduced systemic spread of bacteria from the lungs. However, when mice were treated with antibiotics after infection to improve clinical relevance, the survival benefit was lost, and CS-exposed mice had more pulmonary edema, increased numbers of BAL monocytes, and elevated monocyte and lymphocyte chemokines. CS-exposed antibiotic-treated mice also had higher serum surfactant protein D and angiopoietin-2, consistent with more severe lung epithelial and endothelial injury. The results indicate that acute CS exposure enhances the recruitment of immune cells to the lung during bacterial pneumonia, an effect that may provide microbiological benefit but simultaneously exposes the mice to more severe inflammatory lung injury. The inclusion of antibiotic treatment in preclinical studies of acute lung injury in bacterial pneumonia may enhance clinical relevance, particularly for future studies of current or emerging tobacco products.

IntroductionCigarette smoking (CS) remains a major public health concern and has recently been associated with an increased risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) experiments in human volunteers have demonstrated that active smokers develop increased alveolar-epithelial barrier permeability to protein after inhaling lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Here we tested the hypothesis that short-term whole-body CS exposure would increase LPS-induced lung edema in mice.MethodsAdult mice were exposed in a Teague TE-10 machine to CS from 3R4F cigarettes at 100 mg/m3 total suspended particulates for 12 days, then given LPS or saline intratracheally. Control mice were housed in the same room without CS exposure. Post-mortem measurements included gravimetric lung water and BAL protein, cell counts, and lung histology. Cytokines were measured in lung homogenate by ELISA and in plasma by Luminex and ELISA.ResultsIn CS-exposed mice, intratracheal LPS caused greater increases in pulmonary edema by gravimetric measurement and histologic scoring. CS-exposed mice also had an increase in BAL neutrophilia, lung IL-6, and plasma CXCL9, a T-cell chemoattractant. Intratracheal LPS concentrated blood hemoglobin to a greater degree in CS-exposed mice, consistent with an increase in systemic vascular permeability.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate that CS exposure in endotoxin injured mice increases the severity of acute lung injury. The increased lung IL-6 in CS-exposed LPS-injured mice indicates that this potent cytokine, previously shown to predict mortality in patients with ARDS, may play a role in exacerbating lung injury in smokers and may have utility as a biomarker of tobacco-related lung injury.ImplicationsOur results suggest that short-term CS exposure at levels that cause no overt lung injury may still prime the lung for acute inflammatory damage from a "second hit", a finding that mirrors the increased risk of developing ARDS in patients who smoke. This model may be useful for evaluating the acute pulmonary toxicity of existing and/or novel tobacco products and identifying biomarkers of tobacco-related lung injury.

RationaleCigarette smoke exposure is associated with an increased risk of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); however, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain largely unknown.ObjectiveTo assess pathways of lung injury and inflammation in smokers and non-smokers with and without lipopolysaccharide (LPS) inhalation using established biomarkers.MethodsWe measured plasma and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) biomarkers of inflammation and lung injury in smokers and non-smokers in two distinct cohorts of healthy volunteers, one unstimulated (n=20) and one undergoing 50 μg LPS inhalation (n=30).Measurements and main resultsAfter LPS inhalation, cigarette smokers had increased alveolar-capillary membrane permeability as measured by BAL total protein, compared with non-smokers (median 274 vs 208 μg/mL, p=0.04). Smokers had exaggerated inflammation compared with non-smokers, with increased BAL interleukin-1β (p=0.002), neutrophils (p=0.02), plasma interleukin-8 (p=0.003), and plasma matrix metalloproteinase-8 (p=0.006). Alveolar epithelial injury after LPS was more severe in smokers than non-smokers, with increased plasma (p=0.04) and decreased BAL (p=0.02) surfactant protein D. Finally, smokers had decreased BAL vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (p

Background: Microvascular scarring compromises the functionality of the endometrium, and vascular flow at the junctional zone (JZ) may be the key to understanding poor reproductive outcomes in women with Asherman syndrome (AS). Aims: To investigate whether vascular perfusion of the uterus, measured by dynamic contrast‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE‐MRI) is impaired in women with intrauterine adhesions (IUA) and AS. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational cohort pilot study of 23 women with IUA treated with hysteroscopic synecholysis and a control group of two patients with cervix cancer were subject to DCE‐MRI with gadolinium to assess uterine vascularity. Twelve regions of interest (ROIs) were allocated on the DCE‐MRI image incorporating the JZ, with control ROI placed at the psoas muscle. Individual ROIs were compared to the mean total perfusion (TP) in the same uterus. Pre‐ and post‐operative perfusion analyses were performed on five women. Receiver operator curves (ROC) were used to analyse MRI as a predictor of IUA. Results: There was no significant difference in perfusion; a trend toward reduced perfusion was observed in women with IUA compared to the controls. The ROC was predictive of higher‐grade and inoperable IUA. Conclusions: Reduced perfusion on DCE‐MRI as assessed by ROC predicted higher‐stage AS. The results of this study support further investigation of DCE‐MRI as a prognostic tool for AS prior to surgical intervention to assist in providing prognostic guidance for women suffering from AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with endometriosis use cannabis to manage their symptoms. This study aimed to identify costs, modes of administration, product composition, and self‐reported effectiveness for those accessing medicinal cannabis in Australia. There were 192 survey responses analysed. Most (63.5%) used a 'cannabis clinic' doctor, incurring an initial consultation cost of $100–$200+ (10.2% Medicare bulk‐billed) and median cannabinoid medicine costs of $300AUD per month. Cost was a major barrier to access, necessitating reducing dosage (76.1%) and/or consuming illicit cannabis (42.9%), despite a prescription. Most (77%) medical consumers used two or more cannabis products, with delta‐9‐tetrahydrocannabinol predominant oil and flower products most frequently prescribed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous quantitative research has shown that cannabis use, mostly illicit, is used for symptom management amongst those with endometriosis living in Australia or New Zealand, but the drivers and barriers for use of legal, medicinal cannabis in this population are currently unclear. This study sought to investigate, via online focus groups, the perceptions, barriers, drivers, and experiences associated with cannabis use, whether legal or illicit, amongst 37 Australians and New Zealanders, aged 18-55, with a medical diagnosis of endometriosis. Previous cannabis usage was not required to participate. Discussion topics included strategies employed to manage symptoms, exploration of current medications, previous use of cannabis for pain management, and interest in using medicinal cannabis as a management strategy. Participants with moderate-to-severe symptoms of medically diagnosed endometriosis reported inadequacies with their current medical and self-management strategies and were inclined to try medicinal cannabis, both as part of their medical management and as part of a clinical trial. Barriers to medicinal cannabis adoption identified in this cohort included high costs of legal cannabis products, lack of clarity and fairness in current roadside drug testing laws and workplace drug testing policies, concern over the impact of stigma affecting familial, social and workplace life domains, and subsequent judgement and the lack of education/engagement from their medical providers regarding cannabis use. Given the interest in medicinal cannabis and the reported lack of effective symptom management, clinical trials are urgently required to determine the potential role that medicinal cannabis may play in reducing the symptoms of endometriosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]