TY - JOUR T1 - Non-eosinophilic asthma in children: relation with airway remodeling JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/09031936.00168210 SP - erj01682-2010 AU - S. Baraldo AU - G. Turato AU - E. Bazzan AU - A. Ballarin AU - M. Damin AU - E. Balestro AU - K.L. Oliani AU - F. Calabrese AU - P. Maestrelli AU - D. Snijders AU - A. Barbato AU - M. Saetta Y1 - 2011/01/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2011/02/10/09031936.00168210.abstract N2 - Non-eosinophilic asthma is increasingly recognized as an important clinical-pathological phenotype in adults. However, this entity has been scarcely investigated in children.In particular, it is unknown whether airway remodeling would develop in children with non-eosinophilic asthma to the same degree as in children with eosinophilic disease.Toward this aim, we analysed bronchial biopsies from 80 children undergoing bronchoscopy for appropriate clinical indications: 21 with non-eosinophilic asthma, 34 with eosinophilic asthma and 25 control children. Features of airway remodeling (basement membrane thickening, epithelial loss, angiogenesis) and immune activation (inflammatory infiltrate, IL-4, IL-5, TGF-β, TGF-βRII) were quantified by histology and immunohistochemistry.The main components of airway remodeling were present in children with non-eosinophilic asthma just as in those with eosinophilic disease. Indeed, compared to control children, both non-eosinophilic and eosinophilic asthmatic children had thickened basement membrane, increased epithelial loss and number of vessels. Moreover, in both groups of asthmatics expression of IL-4 and IL-5 was increased, while that of TGF-βRII was reduced, as compared to controls.This study demonstrates that structural changes typical of asthma develop in asthmatic children even in the absence of a prominent eosinophilic infiltrate, indicating that other mechanisms, besides eosinophilic inflammation, may promote airway remodeling early in life. ER -