Infants and children who need scissors before the age of 2 RSVinfection (RSV: Respiratory Syncytial Virus) can develop altered lung structure and function. These are associated with negative health effects.
Most children become ill with RSV, a viral disease of the lower respiratory tract, before the age of two. Mild forms of the disease resemble one A cold with symptoms like Cough, runny or stuffy nose and sneezing. Severe forms of RSV can include wheezing, difficulty breathing and, if oxygenation is impaired, a bluish discoloration of the skin.
“Severe RSV infection in early life can subsequently be associated with impairment of lung function, which is associated with increased symptoms of respiratory diseases, the development of allergies and asthma can be connected,” write the researchers.
To study severe RSV, researchers measured lung function and alveolarization in infant mice. Alveolarization is the development of alveoli, the air sacs in the lungs that are responsible for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. “Alveolarization continues into adulthood, with maximum alveolarization in humans occurring between [2 und 3 Jahren] occurs,” the team wrote. At around the same time, large numbers of immune cells are produced.
The researchers measured these markers five weeks and three months after the first RSV infection and again after a reinfection with the virus. They found that the lungs’ ability to expand while breathing was impaired. Structural changes to the mice’s lungs after RSV infection included an enlargement of the alveoli along with fewer individual alveoli.
The study suggests that viral respiratory disease early in life can alter lung structure and function in the long term. The data also suggest that there are critical links between inflammatory responses in these diseases in early childhood and greater responses to subsequent later infections.
Source: medicalXpress, American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology