Frank et al have elegantly demonstrated in animal models of ventilator associated lung injury (VALI) that interleukin 1β (IL1β) may play a role in the development of alveolar barrier dysfunction. However, the ventilation strategy used for these experiments (with a very high tidal volume of 30 ml/kg) induced an increase in IL1β of only 36 pg/ml in lavage as opposed to 7 pg/ml in their control animals, a level that in their in vitro models of epithelial resistance and permeability did not significantly affect …