Neuronal Modulation of Airway and Vascular Tone and Their Influence on Nonspecific Airways Responsiveness in Asthma

The autonomic nervous system provides both cholinergic and noncholinergic neural inputs to end organs within the airways, which includes the airway and vascular smooth muscle. Heightened responsiveness of the airways to bronchoconstrictive agents is a hallmark feature of reactive airways diseases. The mechanisms underpinning airways hyperreactivity still largely remain unresolved. In this paper we summarize the substantial body of evidence that implicates dysfunction of the autonomic nerves that innervate smooth muscle in the airways and associated vasculature as a prominent cause of airways hyperresponsiveness in asthma.