Nox enzymes in allergic airway inflammation

Allergic Airway Inflammation

Surfactant and allergic airway inflammation.

Pulmonary surfactant is a complex mixture of unique proteins and lipids that covers the airway lumen. Surfactant prevents alveolar collapse and maintains airway patency by reducing surface tension at the air-liquid interface. Furthermore, it provides a defence against antigen uptake by binding foreign particles and enhancing cellular immune responses. Allergic asthma is associated with chronic ...

Inflammation in Mice A20 Attenuates Allergic Airway

Experimental advances in understanding allergic airway inflammation.

Asthma is largely an inflammatory disease, with the development of T cell mediated inflammation in the lung following exposure to allergen or other precipitating factors. Currently, the major therapies for this disease are directed either at relief of bronchoconstriction (ie beta-agonists) or are non-specific immunomodulators (ie, corticosteroids). While much attention has been paid to factors ...

Role of cytokines in allergic airway inflammation.

Asthma is characterized by intense infiltration of eosinophils and CD4+ T cells into the submucosal tissue of airways. Accumulating evidence indicates that T helper type 2 cell-derived cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5 and IL-13 play critical roles in orchestrating and amplifying allergic inflammation in asthma. In addition, it has been suggested that newly identified cytokines includi...