Mast cells infiltrate the airway smooth muscle (ASM) of patients with asthma, an event which is likely to be a key factor in the development of this disease. Adhesion is a fundamental mechanism facilitating cellular cross-talk. We have examined whether human lung mast cells (HLMC) and ASM adhere, and have also examined the mechanism involved. Primary cultures of HLMC and confluent human ASM wer...

Airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass is increased in asthma, and ASM cells from patients with asthma are hyperproliferative and release more IL-6 and CXCL8. The BET (bromo- and extra-terminal) family of proteins (Brd2, Brd3, and Brd4) govern the assembly of histone acetylation-dependent chromatin complexes. We have examined whether they modulate proliferation and cytokine expression in asthmatic ASM...

BACKGROUND In vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated the role of the acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) in pathophysiological processes and alterations in response to ethanol exposure. Cellular and plasmatic ASM activities are increased in male alcohol dependent patients and decrease during physical withdrawal. METHODS Here, we analyzed the time course of ASM in male and also female acutely int...

Osteoporosis is a common disorder characterised mainly by low bone mineral density (BMD), and leading to an increased risk of fracture. We have developed a new device that estimates BMD from ordinary hand radiographs. A crucial element of this method is the reconstruction of the metacarpals. This paper describes how this was solved using the Active Shape Model (ASM). Standard ASM is unable to l...

Ceramides deriving from sphingomyelin hydrolysis are important mediators of apoptotic signals originating from Fas (APO-1/CD95). However, definitive evidence for the role played by individual sphingomyelinases is still lacking. We have analyzed lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from patients affected by Niemann Pick disease (NPD), an autosomal recessive disorder caused by loss-of-function mutat...

This review examines the rationale for increased study of the prenatal development of airway smooth muscle (ASM). With a critical role in asthma and airway remodelling, ASM has been extensively investigated. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of studies looking at prenatal ASM development and function. A working party report from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute identified this issue a...

The cause-and-effect relationship between airway smooth muscle (ASM) remodeling and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) following allergen challenge is not well established. Using a rat model of allergen-induced ASM remodeling we explored the relationship between the site of ASM remodeling and AHR. Brown Norway rats, sensitized and challenged (3 times at 5-day intervals) with ovalbumin, were intra...

Specimen centrifugation is one of the most time-consuming tasks associated with preanalytical specimen processing. We report the first clinical use and impact study of the novel centrifugation method, axial separation, using the Axial Separation Module (ASM). The ASM centrifuges medical specimens one at a time (in 1 min 9 s) in proprietary Axial Process Containers (APC). Here we report tests of...

In this Tutorial Review, we make the point that a true understanding of trends in reactivity (as opposed to measuring or simply computing them) requires a causal reactivity model. To this end, we present and discuss the Activation Strain Model (ASM). The ASM establishes the desired causal relationship between reaction barriers, on one hand, and the properties of reactants and characteristics of...

The Neurospora crassa Asm-1+ (ascospore maturation 1) gene encodes an abundant nucleus-localized protein required for formation of female structures and for ascospore maturation. Deletion mutants of Asm-1+ are "ascus-dominant," i.e., when crossed to wild type, neither Asm-1+ nor Asm-1 delta spores mature. To explain this behavior, we considered three models: an effect of reduced dosage of the g...