Milestones in cystic fibrosis.

The study of cystic fibrosis (CF) provides a fascinating insight into developments in medicine in the 20th century. Milestones include the first clear clinical descriptions in the 1930s, discovery of a sweat electrolyte abnormality, establishing the autosomal recessive mode of inheritance and improvements in treatment. Microdissection experiments on sweat glands allowed the main defect to be delineated as one of chloride transport. Location of the gene to chromosome 7 made prenatal diagnosis feasible and carrier detection in siblings. The CF gene--its product being the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), and its major mutation Delta F508 was discovered in 1989. World-wide collaboration has resulted in discovery of more than 150 further mutations. Incorporation of CFTR into non-chloride transporting insect cells by conferring chloride transport, proved it a chloride channel. CFTR incorporated into adenovirus results in correction of the chloride transport defect in airway cells, bringing gene therapy closer.