BACKGROUND Inhaled frusemide inhibits airway responses to sodium metabisulphite and other indirect bronchial challenges in asthma by undetermined mechanisms which may relate to its ability to stimulate prostaglandin release. Inhalation of sodium metabisulphite provokes indirect bronchoconstriction, possibly by activating sensory nerves. To investigate the role of cyclooxygenase products in the ...

BACKGROUND Viral and bacterial respiratory tract infections in early-life are linked to the development of allergic airway inflammation and asthma. However, the mechanisms involved are not well understood. We have previously shown that neonatal and infant, but not adult, chlamydial lung infections in mice permanently alter inflammatory phenotype and physiology to increase the severity of allerg...

Airway hyper-responsiveness associated with asthma is mediated by airway smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and has a complicated etiology involving increases in cell contraction and proliferation and the secretion of inflammatory mediators. Although these pathological changes are diverse, a common feature associated with their regulation is a change in intracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)](i))....

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that health related job selection is a major cause of the healthy worker effect, and may result in inaccurate estimates of health risks of exposures in the working environment. Improved understanding of self selection, including the role of airway hyperresponsiveness, should improve accuracy in estimating occupational risks. METHODS We evaluated symptoms of th...

Telocytes (TCs) newly discovered as the mesenchyme-derived interstitial cells were found to have supportive effects on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The present study aimed at investigating effects of TCs or TCs gathered with MSCs on experimental airway inflammation and hyper-responsiveness. The TCs were isolated from the lung tissue of the female BALB/c mice. The ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthm...

A plethysmographic method was employed to assess the airway resistance of conscious, free-breathing guinea-pigs. Using this method animals sensitized by inhalation of ovalbumin and appropriate controls were assessed for their responsiveness to histamine and methacholine in vivo. The cough frequency on exposure to citric acid mist in the two groups was also assessed. Tracheal spirals from these ...

Studies on isolated tracheal airway smooth muscle (ASM) strips have shown that length/force fluctuations, similar to those likely occurring during breathing, will mitigate ASM contractility. These studies conjecture that, solely by reducing length oscillations on a healthy, intact airway, one can create airway hyperresponsiveness, but this has never been explicitly tested. The intact airway has...