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Published ahead of print on May 11, 2006, doi:10.1164/rccm.200501-082PP
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American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Vol 174. pp. 367-372, (2006)
© 2006 American Thoracic Society
doi: 10.1164/rccm.200501-082PP

Pulmonary Perspective

Asthma: Is It Due to an Abnormal Airway Smooth Muscle Cell?

Peter Borger, Michael Tamm, Judith L. Black and Michael Roth

Pulmonary Cell Research, Departments of Research and Pulmonology and Internal Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; and Department of Pharmacology, and the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Peter Borger, Ph.D., Pulmonary Cell Research Department of Research University of Basel, Hebelstrasse 20, 4031 Basel, Switzerland. E-mail: pieter.borger{at}unibas.ch

ABSTRACT

Asthma is an airway disease highly prevalent in westernized countries and of unknown etiology. Often, asthma is associated with atopy, but not all atopic individuals have asthma. Some patients with asthma outgrow symptoms, whereas many others acquire asthma later in life. Still other patients suffer from asthma their entire life. How can we explain these different patterns? It may be that asthma should be regarded as the clinical manifestation of a group of diseases with similar pathology due to a common factor. In this Pulmonary Perspective, we propose that an aberrant phenotype of airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells could be sufficient to explain the pathology of asthma. We will argue an abnormal ASM cell is a prerequisite to the development of asthma. Our postulate is that inadequate levels of C/EBP{alpha}, a protein that is pivotal for the suppression of both inflammation and proliferation responses, confer on ASM cells an activated phenotype that is more susceptible to mitogenic and contractile stimuli.

Key Words: airway smooth muscle • asthma • C/EBP




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