Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease that encompasses three cardinal processes: T helper (Th) cell type 2 (Th2)-polarized inflammation, bronchial hyperreactivity, and airway wall remodeling. However, the link between the immune-inflammatory phenotype and the structural-functional phenotype remains to be fully defined. The objective of these studies was to evaluate the relationship be...

PURPOSE Asthma is a chronic airway disease characterized by airway remodeling, leading to a progressive decline in lung function. Therapeutic agents that attenuate airway remodeling can complement the limited effects of traditional glucocorticoids. In this study, we investigated the effect of resveratrol on allergic airway inflammation and remodeling in a murine model of chronic bronchial asthm...

Inflammation of the airways has been regarded as a cardinal pathophysiologic feature of asthma for some 20 years. This concept has been based on evidence from a variety of sources: the histologic changes in the airway wall, hyperresponsiveness of the asthmatic airways to a wide range of natural and pharmacologic agents, the presence of activated inflammatory and immune cells and their mediators...

Airway inflammation is one of the pathophysiological characteristics of asthma, which is mediated through infiltration of inflammatory cells, including mast cells, and eosinophilic and neutrophilic granulocytes in the airway wall. This cell infiltration subsequently leads to bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and, in the case of chronic inflammation, persistent changes of the airways, i.e. air...

Airway inflammation increases during acute exacerbations of COPD. Extrinsic factors, such as airway infections, increased air pollution, and intrinsic factors, such as increased oxidative stress and altered immunity may contribute to this increase. The evidence for this and the potential mechanisms by which various aetiological agents increase inflammation during COPD exacerbations is reviewed....

STUDY OBJECTIVE The upper and lower airways are continuous. While upper airway symptoms are common in COPD patients, with accumulating evidence to suggest increased nasal inflammation, the relationships among upper airway, lower airway, and systemic inflammatory indexes have not been studied. We aimed to confirm that there is heightened nasal inflammation in COPD patients, to test the hypothesi...

Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), in which airway inflammation has been reported to be a key factor, is an important component of asthma. However the precise role of inflammation in AHR is still unclear. In this report, airway inflammatory changes were assessed using hypertonic saline-induced sputum examination and exhaled nitric oxide analysis, and the relation between AHR to methacholine, air...

Inflammation and airway remodeling are two responses readily apparent in asthma and other inflammatory disorders of the airway and lungs. Both adenosine and IL-13 play critical roles in contributing pathways. A new study reveals a previously unrecognized interaction between adenosine and IL-13 that indicates a mutual stimulation that may contribute to the nature and severity of airway inflammat...

The role of nitric oxide in the airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation of bronchial asthma has not yet been established. However, L-arginine, the substrate for nitric oxide synthases, reportedly alleviates airway hyperresponsiveness caused by parainfluenza virus and reduces granulocytic inflammation induced by ischemia-reperfusion. We investigated the effects of L-arginine on a murine mode...

Asthma is a serious health and socioeconomic issue all over the world, affecting more than 300 million individuals. The disease is considered as an inflammatory disease in the airway, leading to airway hyperresponsiveness, obstruction, mucus hyper-production and airway wall remodeling. The presence of airway inflammation in asthmatic patients has been found in the nineteenth century. As the inf...