The inflammatory response of human airway smooth muscle cells

Background: Tissue remodeling induced by airway inflammation is a main trigger of pathogenesis in various chronic lung diseases like asthma, COPD, IPF, and pulmonary hypertension. The role of human airway smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) in this context is unclear. Hypothesis: HASMCs participate in linking inflammation with remodeling. Methods: The inflammatory responses of ex vivo-cultivated HASMCs to TNFα were investigated by whole-genome-microarray analyses. Diferrential regulation of genes associated with airway inflammation and remodeling were verified by qRT-PCR and ELISA. Results: TNFa induced the expression of 18 cytokines/chemokines and five tissue remodeling genes involved in (severe/corticosteroid-insensitive) asthma, COPD, IPF and/or pulmonary hypertension. Conclusion: HASMCs participate in the interaction of inflammation and tissue remodeling. HASMCs might be considered as targets in therapies of chronic inflammatory lung diseases with regard to attenuating inflammation-induced remodeling processes leading to the development of emphysema or fibrosis. HASMCs of eight donors were left untreated of were stimulated with TNFa at 20 ng/ml. Total RNA was subjected after eight hours of stimulation to whole-human-genome oligo microarray analysis.