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Editorial
. 2020 Dec 15;202(12):1618-1620.
doi: 10.1164/rccm.202007-2973ED.

Turning the Lungs Inside Out: The Intersecting Microbiomes of the Lungs and the Built Environment

Michael P Combs  1 , Robert P Dickson  2   3   4
Affiliations
Editorial

Turning the Lungs Inside Out: The Intersecting Microbiomes of the Lungs and the Built Environment

Michael P Combs et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. .
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Relative surface areas of key organs at the interface of the body and the outside environment. For decades, the surface area of the human gut lumen was overstated (260 m2, that of an entire tennis court). We now know, via modern morphometric methods, that the gut lumen is instead a mere 32 m2, roughly half a badminton court. The lungs are thus the body’s largest interface with the outside environment: 70 m2, the size of a full racquetball court and 30 times that of the skin. Scale bar, 2 m.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

  • Evidence for Environmental-Human Microbiota Transfer at a Manufacturing Facility with Novel Work-related Respiratory Disease.
    Wu BG, Kapoor B, Cummings KJ, Stanton ML, Nett RJ, Kreiss K, Abraham JL, Colby TV, Franko AD, Green FHY, Sanyal S, Clemente JC, Gao Z, Coffre M, Meyn P, Heguy A, Li Y, Sulaiman I, Borbet TC, Koralov SB, Tallaksen RJ, Wendland D, Bachelder VD, Boylstein RJ, Park JH, Cox-Ganser JM, Virji MA, Crawford JA, Edwards NT, Veillette M, Duchaine C, Warren K, Lundeen S, Blaser MJ, Segal LN. Wu BG, et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020 Dec 15;202(12):1678-1688. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202001-0197OC. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020. PMID: 32673495 Free PMC article.

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