Bronchial asthma is an increasingly common disorder that remains poorly understood and difficult to manage. The disease is characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness, chronic inflammation, and mucus overproduction. Based on the finding that leukotriene B4 receptor 1 (BLT1) is expressed highly in Th2 lymphocytes, we analyzed the roles of BLT1 using an OVA-induced bronchial asthma model. BLT1-nu...

Indirect challenges to assess bronchial hyperresponsiveness are being increasingly used both for research and for assessment in the routine pulmonary function laboratory. ‘‘Indirect challenges act by causing the release of endogenous mediators that cause the airway smooth muscle to contract with or without inducing microvascular leakage. Because the responses to these challenges are modified or...

Recent studies of the involvement of the bone marrow in human atopic asthmatic responses to inhaled allergen confirm what we have found in a canine model of Ascaris suum induced bronchial hyperresponsiveness: CD34/45+ haemopoietic progenitors, increased in numbers in the blood and marrow of atopic individuals, can be specifically upregulated following airway allergen challenge eliciting bronchi...

1. Aerosol administration of platelet activating factor (PAF) to normal rabbits induced an enhanced airway responsiveness to inhaled histamine, 6 and 24 h after exposure. Following exposure to bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the carrier molecule for PAF, there was an increase in airway responsiveness to histamine 6 h after challenge, although by 24 h this was not significantly different from the ...

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia is a developmental defect of the diaphragm that allows herniation abdominal contents into thoracic cavity. It usually diagnosed in neonatal period. Late presenting cases are uncommon and difficult to diagnose, due their rarity diversity semiology, with clinical presentation overlapping other more frequent pathologies. We report case 14-month-old male, history sev...

Interleukin(IL)-9 is a pleiotropic Th2 type cytokine which has been shown to play an important role in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma. This review will concentrate on the structure, the source, and the effects of IL-9 as well as its induction and inhibition. The signaling of IL-9 through its receptor will be outlined. Moreover the role of IL-9 in airway hyperresponsiveness, mucus overprod...

The inflammation of chronic asthma appears to be far more complex than a simple eosinophilic inflammation. All cells of the airways—inflammatory and structural—are involved and become activated including T cells, eosinophils, mast cells, macrophages, epithelial cells, fibroblasts, and even bronchial smooth muscle cells. All these cells play an eVector role by the release of pro-inflammatory med...

BACKGROUND No studies have directly compared the effects of immunotherapy and antileukotrienes due to the long time required to appreciate the clinical effects of immunotherapy. We compared the effect of montelukast (MK) and SLIT added to standard therapy in moderate asthma over 5 years. METHODS Open randomized controlled trial. Patients with moderate asthma (and rhinitis) solely due to birch...

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of asthma (self-reported) and relate this to lung function and factors associated with asthma in young farmers. Two hundred and ten female and 1,691 male farming students together with 407 males controls were studied. Each subject underwent a medical interview; forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were r...

BACKGROUND Methacholine hyperresponsiveness is prevalent in elite athletes. Comparative studies have hitherto been limited to methacholine, eucapnic voluntary hyperpnoea and exercise. This study investigated airway responsiveness to these stimuli as well as to adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) and mannitol, in 58 cross-country ski athletes. METHODS Exhaled nitric oxide concentration (F(E)NO), ...