Álvar Agustí, Editor in chief, BRN Reviews
Rosa Faner, Institute for Biomedical Investigation August Pi i Sunyer IDIBAPS, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Centre for Biomedical Investigation Network of Respiratory Diseases CIBERES, Barcelona, Spain; Clinical Foundation for Biomedical Research, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Spain
Lungs grow and mature in utero and after birth until early adulthood. Normally, lung function reaches a peak between 20-25 years of age, earlier in females, and after a relatively brief plateau, it declines slowly due to physiological lung ageing. There are several genetic and environmental factors with the potential to alter this normal lung function trajectory, so it is now recognized that in the general population there is indeed a range of them. Further, it is also known now that some of these trajectories have important health consequences, both for the lungs but also for other organ systems, including premature death. Here we provide a brief overview of these new concepts and discuss the potential implications of this new framework to understand adult respiratory diseases.
Keywords: Airway diseases. Asthma. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Emphysema. Lung development. Smoking.
