Immunity and Pulmonary Vascular Diseases: Challenges, Advances and Future Perspectives

Pulmonary vascular disease (PVD) is a broad term that refers to local or global pulmonary circulation disorders caused by abnormal pulmonary vascular structure and/or function, including any disease affecting intrapulmonary vessels, which may be acquired or congenital and may involve pulmonary arteries, pulmonary veins or pulmonary capillaries. Common PVD subtypes include pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary embolism and pulmonary vasculitis, and so on. Evidence from animal models as well as clinical studies suggests that inflammation and immunity play an important role in the development and progression of pulmonary vascular disease, e.g., cells such as T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, neutrophils, and macrophages can be detected near remodelled vessels in lung biopsies from patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, and increased plasma cytokines and chemokines are associated with pulmonary hemodynamics and clinical outcomes. To date, the role of the immune system in the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of PVD remains unclear and has received increasing attention.



Pulmonary vascular diseases, especially pulmonary hypertension, are clinically refractory diseases, and immune and inflammatory factors play key roles in the occurrence and development of pulmonary vascular diseases. Clinical targeted immune and inflammatory therapy may provide a new direction for the diagnosis and treatment in the future, but there are still many problems to be solved. This Research Topic provides a platform to explore the relationship between immunity and pulmonary vascular disease, and focuses on the current challenges, recent advances and future perspectives, so as to determine the role and mechanisms of inflammatory and immune systems in various pulmonary vascular diseases, and provide novel insights into the future diagnosis and therapy.



We warmly welcome Original Research, Review, Perspective, Clinical Trial, and Case reports that cover, but are not limited to, the following aspects:

• Interactions between immune and inflammatory cells in the pathogenesis of pulmonary vascular diseases.

• Regulatory mechanisms of adaptive and innate immune systems in pulmonary vascular diseases.

• Identification of inflammatory signaling pathways and mediators during the development, screening, and diagnosis of in pulmonary vascular diseases.

• Role of inflammatory factors and immune biomarkers in the diagnosis and risk stratification for pulmonary vascular diseases.

• Impact of current and emerging pulmonary arterial hypertension targeted agents on inflammatory signals and immune function.

• Existing and novel anti-inflammatory drug for pulmonary vascular diseases.

• Application of immune system modulators and antibody therapy for pulmonary vascular diseases.