New insights into the role of cytokines in asthma

摘要

Asthma is a triad of intermittent airway obstruction, bronchial smooth muscle cell hyperreactivity to bronchoconstrictors, and chronic bronchial inflammation. From an aetiological standpoint, asthma Is a heterogenus disease, but often ap- Pears as a form of immediate hypersensi- Tivity. Many patients with asthma have Other manifestations of atopy, such as Rhinitis or exzema. Even among non- Atopic patients with asthma, the patho- Physiology of airway constriction is Similar, raising the hypothesis that alter- Native mechanisms of mast cell degranu- Lation may underlie the disease.