Dendritic cells spark smouldering inflammation in smokers' lungs

Inflammation still ravages the lungs of some smokers years after they quit the habit. What sparks that smouldering destruction remained a mystery until a consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine found that certain dendritic cells in the lung - the cells that 'present' a foreign antigen or protein to the immune system - provoke production of destructive T-cells that attack a key protein called elastin, leading to death of lung tissue and emphysema...

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