The role of MIF in chronic lung diseases: looking beyond inflammation.

The role of MIF in chronic lung diseases: looking beyond inflammation. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2020 Mar 25;: Authors: Florez-Sampedro L, Soto-Gamez A, Poelarends GJ, Melgert BN Abstract Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine that has been associated with many diseases. Most studies found in literature describe MIF as a proinflammatory cytokine involved in chronic inflammatory conditions, but evidence from last years suggests that many of its key effects are not directly related to inflammation. In fact, MIF is constitutively expressed in most human tissues and in some cases in high levels, which does not reflect the pattern of expression of a classic proinflammatory cytokine. Moreover, MIF is highly expressed during embryonic development and decreases during adulthood, which point towards a more likely role as growth factor. Accordingly, MIF knockout mice develop age-related spontaneous emphysema, suggesting that MIF presence (e.g. in younger individuals and wild-type animals) is part of a healthy lung. In view of this new line of evidence, we aimed to review data on the role of MIF in the pathogenesis of chronic lung diseases. PMID: 32208924 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: American Journal of Physiology. Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology - Category: Cytology Authors: Tags: Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol Source Type: research