Clinical and experimental studies on inflammatory mediators during AIDS-associated Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia

摘要

This thesis is based on studies carried out during my appointment as a research fellow at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark from 1993 to 1997. Part of this period was spent as a guest researcher at the Critical Care Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) is the most frequent AIDS defining illness over the past 20 years. PCP is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. An inflammatory reaction to P. carinii is believed to cause respiratory failure. This thesis has attempted to delineate important mechanisms of the inflammatory cascade, and to determine how inflammation is initiated during PCP. In histopathological studies of lung specimens it was shown that PCP caused significant inflammation and destruction of tissue. Specific pathological changes of the alveolar epithelium was observed in PCP but not for other HIV related lung diseases.