We request partial support for a symposium entitled, """"""""Respiratory Distress Syndromes: Molecules to Man."""""""" The purpose of the symposium is to bring together basic scientists, investigators with interest in the infant respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS) and investigators interested in the adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) to explore similarities and differences in the pathogenesis and clinical problems presented by acute lung injury in the neonate and in the adult. These are two primary goals of the symposium: to relate the advances in understanding of lung injury resulting from basic research to potential therapeutic interventions; and to determine whether work related to IRDS and that related to ARDS each have hitherto unrecognized implications for the other syndrome. The rationale for the symposium is the fact that pathogenetic concepts in IRDS have emphasized epithelial injury and surfactant and in ARDS the emphasis has been on endothelial injury and the inflammatory process. It seems likely that both kinds of mechanisms may play a role in both syndromes and the interactions between the two groups of investigators which these symposium will provide should give insight into that possibility. In addition, several interventions are either currently in the process of being tested clinically or will be at that stage soon. We believe it timely to provide a forum where the relevance of basic research to clinical interventions is explored among basic scientists, neonatologists and clinical investigators interested in acute injury in adults in order to identify the most promising areas amenable to pharmacologic intervention in the entire spectrum of acute lung injury. This will be a major symposium with the foremost experts in the world as formal participants. We will seek an audience of interested clinicians and basic scientists and will publish a book summarizing the work which is presented.
