A critical review of the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology: 2012–2015

Abstract

I have had the privilege of serving as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Physiology: Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology from 1/1/2012 to 1/1/2015 and have been reappointed for another 3-year term. When I took over as editor, I published an editorial in AJP-Lung in which I highlighted my vision and outlined the tasks to be accomplished to transform AJP-Lung into “The best place to publish basic, translational, and hypothesis-driven clinical lung research.” Herein I review our accomplishments during the first term. As promised, we review each article submitted to this journal and our reviews always help the quality and impact of every paper. We recognized the contributions of junior authors by establishing a number of awards and increased the visibility of AJP-Lung by establishing Facebook and Blog electronic pages and sponsoring symposia in scientific meetings. Our impact factor increased from 3.523 in 2011 to 4.041 in 2012 and, thanks to our calls for papers, we are receiving large numbers of high-quality papers in all aspects of pulmonary cell biology and lung diseases. The best is yet to come.

Dexmedetomidine Protects Against Traumatic Brain Injury-Induced Acute Lung Injury in Mice

“…In this study, Feeney’s weight-drop model was used to imitate the pathogenesis of acute lung injury after TBI. The total protein concentration in the BALF and lung W/D ratio are sensitive indicators of ALI, and lung pathological change is one of the main classical characteristics of ALI [ 24 ]. In this study, mice were sacrificed at 24 hours after TBI and the total protein concentration in the BALF, the lung W/D ratio, and the pathological changes were measured to assess the severity of ALI induced by TBI.…”

A review of recent developments and applications of morphometry/stereology in lung research

“…The two journals were selected because they have the highest impact factor of those journals publishing basic lung science and because their impact factor has proven to be in the same range over the last years (87). Another important reason is the fact that both journals or their corresponding societies have made substantial efforts to increase the quality of morphometry in lung research by publishing research guidelines (51) and review articles (10, 101, 111) as well as editorials (47,89,162) dedicated to this topic.…”

Heme scavenging reduces pulmonary endoplasmic reticulum stress, fibrosis, and emphysema

“…The majority of these patients have a history of either acute toxic gas inhalation or prolonged cigarette smoking, and present with very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with clinical and imaging features of both lung fibrosis and emphysema (4,9,10). Cigarette smoke-induced COPD characterized by increased collagen deposition around bronchioles and emphysema have also been reported in mice and ferrets (11)(12)(13)(14). In our rodent model, alveolar septal damage and airspace enlargement after a brief exposure to Br 2 far exceeds those obtained in mice exposed to cigarette smoke for 2 to 6 months (15,16).…”