TY - JOUR AU - Ilumets, Helen AU - Mazur, Witold AU - Toljamo, Tuula AU - Louhelainen, Noora AU - Nieminen, Pentti AU - Kobayashi, Hideo AU - Ishikawa, Nobuhisa AU - Kinnula, Vuokko L. PY - 2011 DA - 2011/04/19 TI - Ageing and smoking contribute to plasma surfactant proteins and protease imbalance with correlations to airway obstruction JO - BMC Pulmonary Medicine SP - 19 VL - 11 IS - 1 AB - A significant number of young people start smoking at an age of 13-15, which means that serious smoking-evoked changes may have been occurred by their twenties. Surfactant proteins (SP) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) have been linked to cigarette smoke induced lung remodelling and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the level of these proteins has not been examined during ageing or in young individuals with short smoking histories. SN - 1471-2466 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2466-11-19 DO - 10.1186/1471-2466-11-19 ID - Ilumets2011 ER -