Gastrin-Releasing Peptide and Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a common form of lung injury that can be triggered by premature birth and the unavoidable exposures to treatments regularly used for premature infants,including mechanical ventilation and oxygen as well as conditions that occur frequently among premature infants including infection. Almost all infants who are born prematurely are exposed to either mechanical ventilation, extra oxygen, and many will develop at least one infection; however, not all premature infants will develop BPD. There is currently no way to identify those infants who are at risk for developing BPD, nor are there prognostic or diagnostic tests to determine the severity of lung disease in the first year after discharge from the hospital.

The application of UPLC-tandem mass spectrometry for quantification of urinary biomarkers of oxidative stress is an important technical innovation that will permit sensitive and reproducible analyses of urinary biomarkers with minimal sample preparation to better define disease phenotypes. Establishing a direct correlation between biomarkers of oxidative stress and GRP will accelerate investigation into the mechanisms leading to chronic pediatric lung disease and childhood origins of pulmonary disease.