Cell interactions in asthmatic inflammation

哮喘是卫生保健系统和患者个人的沉重负担。目前，我们可以用皮质类固醇治疗哮喘，以减少肺部炎症，但这些药物的副作用，特别是对儿童的副作用，使它们不太理想的治疗方法。为了设计一种更特异的哮喘治疗方法，只针对参与肺部的炎症细胞，我们需要了解这些细胞的行为，以及是什么启动了肺部的一连串事件。该项目旨在研究化学介质，即细胞因子是如何由肺中的各种细胞产生的，以及它们如何诱导肺细胞对肺组织进行结构变化并增加炎症。正在对释放的细胞因子的来源和特定类型进行调查，以提供有关哮喘疾病过程的重要信息。根据这一新知识，设计具有更少不良副作用的特定新疗法应该是可能的。

Asthma is a significant burden to the health care system and to individual sufferers. Currently we can treat asthma with corticosteroids to reduce inflammation in the lung but the side effects of these medications, particularly in children, make them less than ideal treatments. In order to design a more specific treatment for asthma, which would only target the inflammatory cells which are involved in the lung, we need to understand how these cells behave and what initiates the cascade of events in the lung. This project is designed to investigate how chemical mediators, cytokines, are produced by various cells in the lung and how they induce lung cells to make structural changes to the lung tissue and increase the inflammation. The source and specific types of cytokines released are being investigated to provide important information regarding the disease process of asthma. From this new knowledge, design of specific new treatments, with fewer unwanted side-effects, should be possible.