All issues > Volume 48(10); 2005

Clinical Lecture

Korean J Pediatr. 2005;48(10):1038-1049. Published online October 15, 2005.

Airway Remodelling in Asthma

Dae Hyun DH Lim¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Inha University, Incheon, Korea

Correspondence Dae Hyun DH Lim ,Email: dhyunlim@inha.ac.kr

Abstract

Asthma is characterized by a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways that leads to tissue injury and subsequent structural changes collectively called airway remodelling. Characteristic changes of airway remodelling in asthma include goblet cell hyperplasia, deposition of collagens in the basement membrane, increased number and size of microvessels, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of airway smooth muscle, and hypertrophy of submucosal glands. Apart from inflammatory cells, such as eosinophils, activated T cells, mast cells and macrophages, structural tissue cells such as epithelial cells, fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells can also play an important effector role through the release of a variety of mediators, cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors. Through a variety of inflammatory mediators, epithelial and mesenchymal cells cause persistence of the inflammatory infiltrate and induce airway structural remodelling. The end result of chronic airway inflammation and remodelling is an increased thickness of the airway wall, leading to a increased the bronchial hyperresponsiveness and fixed declined lung function.

Keywords :Asthma , Remodelling