How does insufficient sleep duration, irregular timed sleep schedules, and poor sleep quality contribute to the pathophysiology of lung, heart and blood diseases?

What is the role of lymphatic system in normal function of the heart? Do dysfunctional lymphatics contribute to heart failure? Do lymphatics have a role in recovery after MI? It has been reported that lymphatic vasculature transport HDL during reverse cholesterol transfer. Do lymphatics have a role in atherosclerosis? What is the contribution of lymphatic system to asthma or COPD? Does the lymphatic system contribute... more »

Despite major advances in supportive care and tissue typing non relapse mortality rates for adults undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation are still between 15-20 % at 2 years.
Lung injury and respiratory failure is a major causes of death after HCT.
Although the BMT-CTN has a focused agenda on GVHD, reduction of lung toxicities will be important to improve outcomes.
NHLBI should encourage researched from the... more »

How can the safety, dosing and benefits of existing therapies for sickle cell disease such as hydroxyurea, be optimized in order to increase its efficacy and improve patient adherence?

According to the ISHLT, more than 4,000 patients undergo a heart transplant each year, and almost 4,000 receive single or double lung transplants. Their prognosis depends heavily on the avoidance of rejection, which claims the majority of their lives. For heart transplant recipients, the median survival is 11 years, while for lung transplant recipients, it is approximately 5 years. The current most common anti-rejection... more »

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a complex, progressive condition characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs and restriction of flow through the pulmonary arterial system. Current PAH therapies mainly act of the vasoconstrictive component of the disease; however there is a widely accepted view that another contributor to the disease is an abnormal overgrowth of cells that line the pulmonary arteries, which... more »

What cellular and/or intracellular signaling events are activated in response to acute or chronic physical activity that lead to or explain improvements in health outcomes, prevention, or treatment of lung diseases?

Which metabolic signatures induced by exercise/physical activity would be predictive/ associated with poor lung disease prognosis?

There is a need for greater evidence-based research over the next 5-10 years to reduce healthcare costs, reduce hospitalizations, and support older persons with significant heart, lung, blood, sleep conditions to remain in their private homes if feasible, if technology is utilized that fosters clinical and epidemiologic research.

How to "cure" a chronic, incurable disease - A potential giant step in saving the lives of many thousands of Americans, and potentially millions worldwide, who are afflicted with COPD, the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
The financial effect of COPD in the United States alone is well over $50 billion per year. It is estimated that some 30 million Americans have COPD, which of course means that at least that... more »

End stage congestive heart failure (CHF) causes intensive lung remodeling beyond the type-2 pulmonary hypertension. CHF induced lung remodeling includes profound lung fibrosis, lung vascular remodeling and lung inflammation. Understanding CHF-induced lung remodeling is also critical to understand the right ventricular failure. However, this area is largely unstudied. Regulating CHF-induced lung remodeling and the underlying... more »

How can the structure and function lost in COPD be restored?

Does the homeostasis and health of the lung depend on circadian-coupled genomic function?

What characteristics define progenitor lung cell niches? What controls proliferation and differentiation of lung progenitor cells in normal repair? Can endogenous repair mechanisms and alterations of progenitor cell cycle be harnessed to promote regeneration?

Lung transplantation as a cure for terminal lung disease has seen little improvement in outcomes for more than 20 years. The field remains highly challenging, in part, because of an absence of robust animal models which are technically- feasible and reproducible across centers. Further, models have limited relevance to clinical (chronic) airway remodeling, the leading problem in pulmonary allografts. In the absence of... more »

Is there a critical window of growth and development for maximizing lung function?