Asthma Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Asthma, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, causes, medications.

Immunology of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Barnes PJ

Airway Disease Section, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, Dovehouse Street, London SW3 6LY, UK. p.j.barnes@imperial.ac.uk

Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are both obstructive airway diseases that involve chronic inflammation of the respiratory tract, but the type of inflammation is markedly different between these diseases, with different patterns of inflammatory cells and mediators being involved. As described in this Review, these inflammatory profiles are largely determined by the involvement of different immune cells, which orchestrate the recruitment and activation of inflammatory cells that drive the distinct patterns of structural changes in these diseases. However, it is now becoming clear that the distinction between these diseases becomes blurred in patients with severe asthma, in asthmatic subjects who smoke and during acute exacerbations. This has important implications for the development of new therapies.

Published 27 February 2008 in Nat Rev Immunol, 8(3): 183-92.
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