The Role of the Epithelium in Airway Remodeling in Asthma

The bronchial epithelium is the barrier to the external environment and plays a vital role in protection of the internal milieu of the lung. It functions within the epithelial-mesenchymal trophic unit to control the local microenvironment and help maintain tissue homeostasis. However, in asthma, chronic perturbation of these homeostatic mechanisms leads to alterations in the structure of the airways, termed remodeling. Damage to the epithelium is now recognized to play a key role in driving airway remodeling. We have postulated that epithelial susceptibility to environmental stress and injury together with impaired repair responses results in generation of signals that act on the underlying mesenchyme to propagate and amplify inflammatory and remodeling responses in the submucosa. Many types of challenges to the epithelium, including pathogens, allergens, environmental pollutants, cigarette smoke, and even mechanical forces, can elicit production of mediators by the epithelium, which can be translated into remodeling responses by the mesenchyme. Several important mediators of remodeling have been identified, most notably transforming growth factor-beta, which is released from damaged/repairing epithelium or in response to inflammatory mediators, such as IL-13. The cross talk between the epithelium and the underlying mesenchyme to drive remodeling responses is considered in the context of subepithelial fibrosis and potential pathogenetic mechanisms linked to the asthma susceptibility gene, a disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM)33.