The study revealed that T lymphocytes, our body’s defense cells, are responsible for the airway thickening, which increases the chances of a dangerous asthma attack.
Asthma symptoms are triggered by two factors: inflammation of the airways in the lungs, and thickening of airway muscle in the tubes leading from the lungs to the windpipe, an irreversible condition that doctors refer to as airway remodeling. Certain allergens, commonly dust and animal hair, can trigger inflammation, but the causes of airway remodeling have remained a mystery.
Researchers have now discovered that remodeling is actually caused by T lymphocytes. The study shows that T lymphocytes direct the body’s defense mechanism against antigens, which in the case of asthmatics, results in airway remodeling.
“This is a natural response designed to protect the body from disease,” explained Dr Ramos-Barbon, researcher at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. “But in this case it actually promotes conditions that favour asthma, leading to increased symptoms such as coughing and difficulty breathing.”
To make their discovery, researchers removed T lymphocytes from asthmatic rats, made them fluorescent by adding a jellyfish gene, and then transplanted them into non-asthmatic rats.
The investigators believe that the next stage will be to develop methods of interrupting this defense mechanism to combat asthma and hopefully provide new means of treating and preventing the disorder.