Background: The relationship between fi broblasts, myofi broblasts, and smooth muscle cells within the airway wall remains poorly understood. Objective: The cellular characteristics of primary bronchial fi broblasts from patients with asthma were investigated by evaluating the expression of 3 proteins: α–smooth muscle actin (SMA), fi bronectin containing extra type III domain A (EDAcFN), and sm...

A description of the transcriptome of human bronchial epithelium should provide a basis for studying lung diseases, including cancer. We have deduced global gene expression profiles of bronchial epithelium and lung parenchyma, based on a vast dataset of nearly two million sequence tags from 21 serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) libraries from individuals with a history of smoking. Our an...

BACKGROUND Bronchial epithelium is a target of the alloimmune response in lung transplantation, and intact epithelium may protect allografts from rejection and obliterative bronchiolitis (OB). Herein we study the influence of chimerism on bronchial epithelium and OB development in pigs. METHODS A total of 54 immunosuppressed and unimmunosuppressed bronchial allografts were serially obtained 2...

The role of the airway circulation in supporting mucociliary function has been essentially unstudied. We evaluated the airway clearance of inert, insoluble particles in anesthetized ventilated sheep (n = 8), in which bronchial perfusion was controlled, to determine whether airway mucosal blood flow is essential for maintaining surface transport of particles through airways. The bronchial branch...

The bronchial-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT) is a lymphoepithelial organ, related to the immune defence of the lung and to alveolar clearance, which changes size in certain states of disease. Changes in the size of BALT were quantified and compared, and Spearman's test was used to test the relation with the bronchial epithelium. A total of 180 rats were used, divided into 6 groups of 30 as f...

Two cases of congenital bronchial atresia with pectus excavatum are reported. Costosternal retraction during the efforts to overcome the airway obstruction due to encroachment on normal lung tissue by the hyperinflated segments may play a part in causing pectus excavatum.

MDR1 P-glycoprotein (Pgp 170), a member of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding cassette transporters, acts as an efflux pump for various hydrophobic agents, particularly for xenobiotics such as benzo(a)pyrene. It has also been shown to regulate cell-volume activated chloride channels. Pgp 170 could, therefore, be of particular importance in cellular mechanisms of defence in the airways and...

Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer worldwide. Gene expression in surgically resected and microdissected samples of non-small-cell lung cancers (18 squamous cell carcinomas and nine adenocarcinomas), matched normal bronchial epithelium, and peripheral lung tissue from both smokers (n = 22) and non-smokers (n = 5) was studied using the Affymetrix U133A array. A subset of 15 diffe...

BACKGROUND Studies in cystic fibrosis (CF) generally focus on inflammation present in the airway lumen. Little is known about inflammation occurring in the airway wall, the site ultimately destroyed in end-stage disease. OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that inflammatory patterns in the lumen do not reflect those in the airway wall of children with CF. METHODS Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) f...

Connective tissue contraction is an important aspect of both normal wound healing and fibrosis. This process may contribute to small airway narrowing associated with certain airway diseases. Fibroblast-mediated contraction of a three-dimensional collagen gel has been considered a model of tissue contraction. In this study, the ability of primary cultured human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC) ...