phosphodiesterases  (pde)  hydrolyse intracellular camp  and  cgmp  to  inactive  5’ monophosphates. decreased level of camp is involved in the pathogenesis of asthma. we and others have shown that phosphodiesterases were upregulated in the lung of allergic rats, and bacilli calmette-guérin (bcg) induced the production of camp in vitro. however, it is unclear how bcg’s effect asthma and whether...

Ozone-induced airway hyperresponsiveness occurs concurrently with neutrophilic inflammation and epithelial injury in various species including humans. The mechanism of neutrophil-induced airway hyperresponsiveness, however, has not yet been fully clarified. Neutrophil elastase (NE) is a multipotent protease released from activated neutrophils, which may play a role in ozone-induced airway hyper...

Mast cells are thought to contribute to allergic airway disease. However, the role of mast cell-produced mediators, such as tumour necrosis factor (TNF), for the development of allergic airway disease is unclear. In order to define the role of mast cells in acute allergic airway disease two strains of mast cell-deficient mice (Kit(W/Wv) and Kit(W-sh/W-sh)) were studied. Compared with their wild...

Human blood eosinophils exposed ex vivo to hematopoietic cytokines (e.g., IL-5 or GM-CSF) subsequently display enhanced responsiveness to numerous chemoattractants, such as chemokines, platelet-activating factor, or FMLP, through a process known as priming. Airway eosinophils, obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage after segmental Ag challenge, also exhibit enhanced responsiveness to selected chemo...