On the generation of allergic airway diseases: from GM-CSF to Kyoto

Ritz, Stacey A., Stampfli, Martin R., Davies, Donna E., Holgate, Stephen T. and Jordana, Manel (2002) On the generation of allergic airway diseases: from GM-CSF to Kyoto. Trends in Immunology, 23 (8), 396-402. (doi:10.1016/S1471-4906(02)02278-0).

Abstract

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.
Exposure to certain environmental agents can trigger the expression of GM-CSF in the airways, which might in part be responsible for Th2-mediated allergic asthma. Could this partly explain the increase in asthma prevalence in the West?

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Contributors

Author: Donna E. Davies

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