Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Vol 154, No. 6, Dec 1996, 1594-1597.
Is endothelin-1 a mediator in asthma?
DW Hay, PJ Henry and RG Goldie
Department of Pulmonary Pharmacology, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA
There is a growing understanding of the effects and potential
pathophysiological role of the ETs in asthma and several of the criteria
required to strongly implicate ET-1 as a mediator in this disease have been
fulfilled. However, some of the information is preliminary, equivocal and
requires confirmation. Furthermore, the most important and most difficult
criteria, the clinical testing of potent and selective ET receptor
antagonists in these diseases has not been conducted and will probably not
be completed for several years. A critical area of research continues to be
the elucidation and classification of the ET receptor subtypes mediating
the diverse effects of ET-1 in the lung. The unequivocal determination of
the pathophysiological role of the ETs in asthma awaits the results of
clinical trials with appropriate compounds. Only after these results will
we know whether ET-1 has fulfilled its promise as a key player in lung
pathophysiology, rather than being added to the list of purported important
mediators with unfulfilled expectations.
