On the generation of allergic airway diseases: from GM-CSF to Kyoto.
The sharp increase in the prevalence of asthma over the past three decades suggests an important contribution of environmental factors in the generation of this disease, and compels a search for molecular pathways by which such factors could facilitate Th2 immune-inflammatory airway responses; granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) might be one such signal. In this review, we appraise the evidence with respect to the presence of GM-CSF in asthma, the roles played by GM-CSF in these immune responses and environmental triggers that can induce GM-CSF expression. Further, we propose a paradigm that unites these divergent observations, and postulate that GM-CSF produced in response to environmental agents can establish an airway microenvironment that promotes the initiation, influences the evolution and supports the maintenance of an aeroallergen-specific adaptive Th2 immune response.
Dept of Pathology & Molecular Medicine and Division of Respiratory Diseases and Allergy, Centre for Gene Therapeutics, McMaster University, HSC-4H21, 1200 Main Street West, Ontario, Hamilton, Canada.
Stacey A
SA
Ritz
Martin R
MR
Stämpfli
Donna E
DE
Davies
Stephen T
ST
Holgate
Manel
M
Jordana
D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation; D001249:Asthma / Q000209:etiology*; D004777:Environment; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000502:physiology
D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor