Abstract
The discovery that carbon monoxide (CO)—a highly publicized toxic gas molecule—can have powerful benefits and curative effects not only changed how we view CO, but has, with tremendous contradiction, resulted in clinical trials of CO for the treatment of various pathologies. There is sound preclinical evidence that, at a low concentration, CO has benefits in numerous and diverse diseases in rodents, large animals, and humans. CO especially has potential benefits in inflammatory disorders. As CO moves ahead in the clinic, we continue to advance our understanding of how it functions, especially as the number of potential clinical applications expands. CO’s mechanisms of action at the cellular level depend on the disease and the experimental focus, but the one constant is that CO reestablishes homeostasis.
Footnotes
- Correspondence: Leo E Otterbein PhD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Transplant Institute, Center for Life Sciences, 3 Blackfan Circle, Boston MA 02215. E-mail: lotterbe{at}bidmc.harvard.edu.
Dr Otterbein presented a version of this paper at the symposium Current and Evolving Concepts in Critical Care, at the 54th International Respiratory Congress of the American Association for Respiratory Care, held December 13-16, 2008, in Anaheim, California. The symposium was made possible by an unrestricted educational grant from Ikaria.
- Copyright © 2009 by Daedalus Enterprises Inc.
