Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Premature birth (when babies are born too early) affects approximately 8% of all pregnancies in Canada. Premature babies often need help to breathe for survival, including additional oxygen and a breathing machine. However, this can also injure their lungs and lead to a chronic lung disease called Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD). In Alberta alone, up to 50% of premature babies suffer from this lung disease. Babies with BPD carry a life-long risk of poor lung health, such as asthma, reduced lung function, respiratory infections, and low exercise capacity. Currently there is no specific treatment for BPD. Prevention and/or repair of lung injury would improve long-term lung health in these prematurely-born babies. Therefore, this project is trying to uncover new strategies that can be used to prevent or repair lung injury. To achieve this, we use a specific type of mouse (MRL/MPJ mouse) that has a unique ability for increased wound healing. Injured skin in MRL/MPJ mice heals very quickly and returns to normal without scarring. However, we don't know if these mice can heal their injured lungs faster than regular mice. To investigate this, we injure the lungs by giving baby mice high levels of oxygen to breathe and then study the structure and function of their lungs. We found that the MRL/MPJ mice have the ability to repair their lungs following injury, but the regular mice did not have this ability. By further investigating the MRL/MPJ mouse, we can understand how the lung can repair after injury and apply this to developing new ways of treating BPD in babies.