DCS an autoimmune disease? Article I saw..

[scubaozy]

But your immune systems might consider those bubbles "not belonging here" and triggering a response to kill the bubbles in your bloodstream.
As far as I know (and I am not a doctor) this immune reaction may actually worsen the situation.
If you catch flu you get tired. If you get DCS you get tired (the mildest symptom).

TBH, I always considered most of the dcs signs and symptoms as an immune response anyway (not a doctor either, just common sense). I know HBOT is used to treat belated dcs cases to improve on inflammation and patients treated with anti inflammatory medication as well. If you damage cells through micro bubbles, isn't it obvious that there will be response from the immune system? Am I missing out something here?

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Terrible headline. Correlation is not causation.

Edit:. Here's the journal article: Acute Effects on the Human Peripheral Blood Transcriptome of Decompression Sickness Secondary to Scuba Diving

As I suspected, the headline linked by the OP was completely wrong. There are sections titles in the study that make it very clear that DCS causes an immune response, not that an autoimmune response causes DCS:
DCS Triggers Activation of PI3K-Akt, TLR Pathways, and Immediate Early Genes and DCS Induces Activation of Antioxidant Defense Mechanisms.

It would be more appropriate to characterize it as an inflammatory response. Parts of the immune response, so to speak, are involved in the inflammatory cascade.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Lorenzoid]

There was a discussion of the difference between "immune response" and "inflammatory response" in this thread, starting around post #43.

 

[lowflyer]

I think way too much is being made of this. DCS implies tissue damage. Anytime there is tissue damage (get punched, fall and skin your knee, bang into the swim platform, etc.) there are going to be a released inflammatory mediators, some of which happen to be participants in immune responses. The body does this to clean up the detritus of the tissue injury. If DCS were truly an immune response there would be antibodies left over, and if there were residual antibodies, one would be able to study them to see what they were in response to.

If there are double blind, peer reviewed studies proving the benefit of taking NSAIDS to prevent DCS, great, take them, but don't get tongue tied arguing the terms "inflammatory" and "immune" as if there is some revelation in the exercise. The body is just trying to heal itself.

 

[lowwall]

Could someone with greater knowledge of the field than me please read the paper? It looks to me like the authors said, "Hey, we've got this new tool. Let's use it to look at the differences between bent and unbent divers. Maybe somebody can do something useful with what we find." or as they put it:

Transcriptomic studies provide an opportunity to explore the pathophysiologic pathways and the underlying transcriptional mechanisms that drive disease. Potentially, this can serve as a stepping-stone toward the identification of novel biomarkers or druggable targets.

The full text is available here: Acute Effects on the Human Peripheral Blood Transcriptome of Decompression Sickness Secondary to Scuba Diving

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Could someone with greater knowledge of the field than me please read the paper? It looks to me like the authors said, "Hey, we've got this new tool. Let's use it to look at the differences between bent and unbent divers. Maybe somebody can do something useful with what we find." or as they put it:

Transcriptomic studies provide an opportunity to explore the pathophysiologic pathways and the underlying transcriptional mechanisms that drive disease. Potentially, this can serve as a stepping-stone toward the identification of novel biomarkers or druggable targets.

The full text is available here: Acute Effects on the Human Peripheral Blood Transcriptome of Decompression Sickness Secondary to Scuba Diving

I don't believe they think they have a new tool. They're saying that the findings in their divers are consistent with previous animal models and wondering whether their data will be a stepping stone, so to speak, to further research and the potential for treatments that target a particular part of this pathway.

Best regards,
DDM