Utilization of Explanted Lungs for Isolation of Tissue Samples and Primary Cell Lines to Study Pulmonary Fibrosis

Pulmonary Fibrosis involves scarring of the lung. Gradually, the air sacs of the lungs become replaced by fibrotic tissue. The most current thinking is that the fibrotic process is a reaction to tiny injury to the lung. When the scar forms, the tissue becomes thicker causing a permanent loss of the tissue's ability to carry oxygen into the bloodstream. We need to obtain lung tissue from patients without pulmonary fibrosis and compare it to lung tissue from patients with pulmonary fibrosis.