Science / Medicine : Emphysema Cause Traced

Doctors in Vancouver, Canada, have discovered that tiny cells called neutrophils tend to collect in the lungs of active smokers where they are then free to slowly destroy the organs. The finding, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, may help explain why smokers are more likely to develop emphysema, a potentially fatal lung disease.

Past research has suggested that when the disease-fighting neutrophils are exposed to cigarette smoke, they release an enzyme that attaches itself to the lung tissue and begins to destroy the lungs’ elastic properties.

The research, led by Dr. William MacNee of St. Paul’s Hospital, found that the lungs of active smokers tended to hoard the neutrophils. The hoarding was not seen in nonsmokers or volunteers who did not smoke during the study.

“We conclude that the presence of cigarette smoke in the lungs of some subjects increases the local concentration of neutrophils and suggest that . . . emphysema may be a result of the destruction of lung tissue by neutrophils that remain” in the tiny vessels of the lungs, the researchers said.