The airway epithelium in human plays a central role as the first line of defense against environmental contaminants. Most respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and respiratory infections, disturb normal muco-ciliary functions by stimulating the hypersecretion of mucus. Several muco-active agents have been used to treat hypersecretion symptoms in pati...

Healthy individuals have few goblet cells in their airways, but in patients with hypersecretory diseases goblet-cell upregulation results in mucus hypersecretion, airway plugging, and death. Multiple stimuli produce hypersecretion via epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression and activation, causing goblet-cell metaplasia from Clara cells by a process of cell differentiation. These cel...

Rationale: Mucus hypersecretion has been shown to be an important cause of airway obstruction in COPD and asthma, and has been associated with fatal asthma. Previous in-vitro and in-vivo studies have provided direct evidence that the myristoylated alanine-rich C kinase substrate (MARCKS) is a central regulatory molecule linking secretagogue stimulation at the goblet cell surface to mucin granul...

RATIONALE Epithelial remodelling in asthma is characterised by goblet cell hyperplasia and mucus hypersecretion for which no therapies exist. Differentiated bronchial air-liquid interface cultures from asthmatic children display high goblet cell numbers. Epidermal growth factor and its receptor have been implicated in goblet cell hyperplasia. OBJECTIVES We hypothesised that EGF removal or tyr...

groups was hypertonicity of the bronchial wall, which was frequent in the asthmatics and absent in the chronic bronchitics. Mucus was scanty and viscous in the asthmatics and more abundant and watery in the chronic bronchitics. Hypersecretion of mucus occurred in both groups. In asthma the mucous hyperplasia affected chiefly the goblet cells. In chronic bronchitis the deeper bronchial glands we...

EBM84 is a traditional herbal medicine and a combination of extracts obtained from Pinellia ternata and Zingiber officinale. It is traditionally used to treat vomiting, nausea, sputum and gastrointestinal disorders, and functions is an effective expectorant. In this study, we evaluated the protective effects of EBM84 on asthmatic responses, particularly mucus hypersecretion in an ovalbumin (OVA...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous and complex disease of which the basic pathophysiological mechanisms remain largely unknown. On the basis of recent results from pathological studies and large clinical trials, the presence of airway inflammation does not seem to be sufficient to explain the complexity of the disease and the relatively poor response to treatment. I...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Carbocysteine (S-carboxymethylcysteine) is a mucoactive drug with in vitro free radical scavenging and anti-inflammatory properties. Several clinical trials have indicated that carbocysteine reduces exacerbation rates in COPD. In the present study, the effect of carbocysteine on the airway load of Haemophilus influenzae was assessed in rats chronically exposed to cigare...

To examine the in vivo effects of the 15-member macrolide, azithromycin (AZM), on mucus hypersecretion, we induced hypertrophic and metaplastic changes of goblet cells in rat nasal epithelium by intranasal instillation of ovalbumin (OVA) in OVA-sensitized rats, or by intranasal lipopolysaccharides (LPS) instillation. Oral administration of AZM (5-10 mg/kg) or clarithromycin (CAM, 5-10 mg/kg) si...

Respiratory mucus represents the products derived from secretion of the submucosal glands and the goblet cells. Accumulation of mucus in the airway tree may be caused by an increased volume of mucus produced, and also by decreased clearance due to defects in the ciliary clearance apparatus. Hypersecretion of mucus contributes to the morbidity of airway diseases by predisposing patients to respi...