Historical perspective on airway smooth muscle: the saga of a frustrated cell.
Seow, C. Y., and J. J. Fredberg.
1Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, St. Paul's Hospital, University
of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; and 2Department of
Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
02115
APStracts 8:0265A, 2001.
Despite the lack of a clearly defined physiological function, airway smooth muscle
receives substantial attention because of its involvement in the pathogenesis of asthma.
Recent investigations have turned to the ways in which the muscle is influenced by its
dynamic microenvironment. Ordinarily, airway smooth presents little problem, even
when maximally activated, because unending mechanical perturbations provided by
spontaneous tidal breathing put airway smooth muscle in a perpetual state of
"limbo," keeping its contractile machinery off balance and unable to achieve
its force-generating potential. The dynamic microenvironment affects airway smooth
muscle in at least two ways: by acute changes associated with disruption of myosin
binding and by chronic changes associated with plastic restructuring of contractile and
cytoskeletal filament organization. Plastic restructuring can occur when dynamic length
changes occur between sequential contractile events or within a single contractile event.
Impairment of these normal responses of airway smooth muscle to its dynamic
environment may be implicated in airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma.
Received ; accepted in final form
APS Manuscript Number A339-1.
Article publication pending J Appl Physiol
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 2001 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 18 June 2001