Pathogenesis of respiratory inflammation (original) (raw)

Airways 'inflammation' plays a key role in the pathogenesis of airways disease and remodeling in COPD as well as in a number of other disease states including bronchial asthma, respiratory tract infections, cystic fibrosis, bronchiolitis and bronchiectasis. Inflammatory cells such as macrophages, neutrophils, eosinophils, CD8+ T lymphocytes, and subsequent changes which include epithelial damage and mucus hypersecretion have been investigated in a number of studies. Notably in COPD, which is also characterized by parenchymal destruction, the heterogeneity of the disease has hindered data interpretation, while extrapolation of the results of relatively non-invasive studies to the actual pathology found in the distal lung is difficult. Thus, major studies have frequently elicited conflicting interpretation, and a detailed profile of disease phenotype-specific inflammation of COPD as well as the importance of spill-over of inflammatory mediators into the circulating blood has y...