title: Airway inflammation in childhood asthma.
abstract: Airway pathology has been extensively investigated in adulthood asthma, whereas only few studies examined bronchial biopsies in childhood asthma. To evaluate the airway pathology in children with asthma, we analyzed bronchial biopsies obtained from 23 children undergoing bronchoscopy for clinical indications other than asthma. Nine had mild/moderate asthma. Six had atopy without asthma, and eight had no atopy or asthma. We measured basement membrane thickness and quantified the number of eosinophils, mast cells, neutrophils, macrophages, T lymphocytes, and positive cells for transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) and its receptors I and II (TGFbeta-RI and TGFbeta-RII) in subepithelium. Children with asthma had an increase in basement membrane thickness and in the number of eosinophils compared with control subjects, but not compared with children with atopy. They also had a decreased expression of TGFbeta-RII compared with both those with atopy and control subjects. In children with asthma, the number of eosinophils correlated negatively with TGFbeta-RII and positively with symptom duration. In conclusion, airway eosinophilia and basement membrane thickening, which are the pathologic features that are characteristic of adulthood asthma, are already present in children with mild asthma, and even in children with atopy without asthma. Moreover, in children with asthma but not in children with atopy without asthma, there is a downregulation of TGFbeta-RII.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbato
authors.forename: Graziella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Turato
authors.forename: Simonetta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baraldo
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bazzan
authors.forename: Fiorella
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Calabrese
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tura
authors.forename: Renzo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zuin
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Beghe
authors.forename: Piero
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maestrelli
authors.forename: Leonardo M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Fabbri
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saetta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000473:pathology; D001980:Bronchi / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004804:Eosinophils; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D018125:Receptors, Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000378:metabolism; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018125:Receptors, Transforming Growth Factor beta; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1