Pulmonary Inflammation and the Role of Pre- and Postnatal Factors in the Pathogenesis of BPD

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is an evolving process of lung injury and aberrant wound healing. An imbalance between proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators, favouring proinflammatory mechanisms, and an impaired generation of growth factors which are crucial for a normal pulmonary development have been identified as central factors in the pathogenesis of BPD. Pre- and postnatal events such as chorioamnionitis and various interventions of neonatal intensive care induce an injurious inflammatory response in the immature airways and the pulmonary interstitium of preterm infants which may subsequently affect normal alveolarisation and vascular development of the immature lungs.