Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology 1735-1502 16 4 2017 08 12 282 288 EN Esmaeil Mortaz Department of Immunology, Medical School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Clinical Tuberculosis and Epidemiology Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Division of Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands Ian Adcock Cell and Molecular Biology Group, Airways Disease Section, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK AND Priority Research Centre for Healthy Lungs, Hunter Medical Research Institute, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia Hamidreza Jamaati Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Center Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Adnan Khosravi Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Center Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Masoud Movassaghi Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA Johan Garssen Division of Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands AND Nutricia Research Centre for Specialized Nutrition, Utrecht, The Netherlands Mostafa Alavi Mogadam Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Center Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Frank Redegeld Division of Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands 2016 09 29 2017 03 17 Inflammation is an important component of numerous cancers and chronic diseases and many inflammatory mediators have been shown to have potential prognostic roles. Tumor-infiltrating mast cells can promote tumor growth and angiogenesis, but the mechanism of mast cell activation is unclear. Early studies have shown that immunoglobulin free light chains (FLC) can trigger mast cell activation in an antigen-specific manner. Increased expression of FLC is observed within the stroma of many human cancers including those of breast, colon, lung, pancreas, kidney, and skin. These overexpressed FLCs are co-localized to areas of mast cell infiltration. Importantly, FLC expression is associated with basal-like cancers with an aggressive phenotype. Moreover, FLC is expressed in areas of inflammatory cell infiltration and its expression is significantly associated with poor clinical outcome. In addition, serum and bronchoalveolar fluid FLC concentrations are increased in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) compared to control subjects. In this review, we provide an update on the role of FLC in the pathogenesis of several lung disorders and indicate how this may contribute to new therapeutic opportunities.    https://ijaai.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijaai/article/view/1082 https://ijaai.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijaai/article/download/1082/750