RATIONALE Inhaled side-stream tobacco smoke brings in all of its harmful components impairing mechanisms that protect the airways and lungs. Chronic respiratory health consequences are a complex multi-step silent process. By the time clinical manifestations require medical attention, several structural and functional changes have already occurred. The respiratory system has to undergo an iterat...

Non-communicable, chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) affect millions of individuals worldwide. The course these CRDs (asthma, obstructive pulmonary disease, and cystic fibrosis) are often punctuated by microbial infections that may result in hospitalization associated with increased risk morbidity mortality, as well reduced quality life. Interleukin-13 (IL-13) is a key protein regulates airway...

RATIONALE Cystic fibrosis (CF) is believed to be associated with mucus hypersecretion; thus, the principal airway gel-forming mucins, MUC5AC and MUC5B, are also expected to be increased relative to non-CF secretions. However, we have shown that these mucins are decreased during stable CF disease. OBJECTIVES In this study, we determine if these mucins increase during a pulmonary exacerbation o...

Allergic asthma is characterized by airway inflammation with a Th2-type cytokine profile, hyper-IgE production, mucus hypersecretion, and hyperreactivity (AHR). It increasingly recognized that heterogeneous disease implicating complex immune mechanisms resulting in distinct endotypes observed patients. In this study, we showed non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice, which spontaneously develop autoimmun...

Bronchiectasis is characterised by hypersecretion and impaired clearance of mucus. A 400-mg dose of inhaled mannitol improves mucus clearance however, the effect of other doses is unknown. A total of 14 patients, aged 63.3+/-5.7 yrs, were studied on five visits. Mucus clearance at baseline and with mannitol (160, 320 and 480 mg) was measured using technetium-99m-sulphur colloid and imaging with...

Airway epithelial mucus hypersecretion and mucus plugging are prominent pathologic features of chronic inflammatory conditions of the airway (e.g. asthma and cystic fibrosis) and in most of these conditions, women have worse prognosis compared with male patients. We thus investigated the effects of estradiol on mucus expression in primary normal human bronchial epithelial cells from female dono...

Asthma is currently affecting approximately 300 million people worldwide and is expected to rise to 400 million over the next couple decades. Airway remodelling in asthma consists of mucus hypersecretion, epithelium erosion, extracellular matrix protein deposition under the basement membrane, smooth muscle proliferation and angiogenesis. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a par...

There is now compelling evidence that proteinases and oxidative stress play pathogenetic roles in the following pathologies in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: airspace enlargement; chronic inflammation in the airways, lung interstitium, and alveolar space; and mucus hypersecretion in the large airways. Proteinases and oxidants may also contribute to remodeling processes in the small airw...

Glucosamine synthetase, the first enzyme in glycoprotein synthesis, has been measured in serial rectal biopsies in four patients with membranous colitis. In two of the patients the levels of the enzyme were very high initially and in the other two patients the enzyme levels rose to a peak above the normal range after a delay of up to 10 days. These high levels may be related to the mucus hypers...

Methods Our aim in this study was to establish a humanized mouse model to study GMOs by adoptively transferring peripheral blood mononuclear cells from AAI-specific IgE-positive legume allergic and non-allergic individuals into SCID mice. These mice were then gavaged twice weekly for 1 month with GM pea, non-transgenic pea and Tendergreen bean seed meal suspensions or PBS. Subsequently, mice we...