サイコイドーシス患者の肺マイクロファージの免疫学的異常

Bronchoalveolar lavage is an invaluable means of accurately evaluating the inflammatory and immune processes in the human lung. Sarcoidosis is a multisystem disorder characterized by heightened immune processes at sites of disease activity. The lung is most commonly involved. Although granulomas are charactaristic pathologic features of this disease, a number of studies suggest that the initial lesion in the lung is a T-cell alveolitis (an accumulation of T-cellls in the lung). There are a lot of findings that show abnormal functions of alveolar macrophages obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage in the release of various monokines and arachidonic acid metabolites and metabolize oxygen. In this review, the abnormalities of alveolar macrophages implicated in pulmonary T-cell alveolitis and fibrosis are reviewed and their potential roles in the lungs are discussed.