查看文章

It has been almost a decade since the Lung Health Study shed light on a critical aspect of smoking-related lung disease that had not yet been appreciated: over time, approximately 40% of active smokers develop significant obstructive lung physiology, and, despite smoking cessation, another 10% also develop lung disease (1). This revelation should not have caused an enormous surprise because for years pathologists had described how large numbers of innate and adaptive immune cells are embedded within the lung tissue of former smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema (2). Together, however, these intriguing clinical and pathological observations opened the door to a new concept: in susceptible individuals, cigarette-smoke exposure could trigger long-lasting inflammatory memory responses that persist beyond the immediate period of exposure to cigarette smoke …