Abstract
Bronchial thermoplasty is a newly licensed asthma therapy, which can reduce asthma symptoms long term, but can result in worsening of asthma symptoms short term. Cellular changes that occur following thermoplasty have not been studied widely. In addition computational modelling suggests the airway is exposed to a range of temperatures during thermoplasty as the radio frequency energy (65°C, 10 seconds) is only applied to the airway wall in direct contact with the probes' four electrodes.
We assessed ASM contraction in the collagen gel assay, α-SMA expression, cell number, viability and IL-8/CXCL-10 release by ELISA following heating (37-65°C, 10 seconds). Collagen gels were impregnated with equivalent ASM cell number (1.8x105).
For results see Table 1.
Following heating to 55-65°C ASM agonist induced contractility and/or α-SMA expression is reduced transiently. Following heating to 65°C ASM cell number is reduced supporting the hypothesis that thermoplasty reduces ASM mass in vivo, however, the ASM can release more inflammatory mediators, which could have detrimental effects on asthma symptoms.
- Copyright ©the authors 2016