PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - B Vrugt
AU  - S Wilson
AU  - A Bron
AU  - ST Holgate
AU  - R Djukanovic
AU  - R Aalbers
TI  - Bronchial angiogenesis in severe glucocorticoid-dependent asthma
AID  - 10.1034/j.1399-3003.2000.01507.x
DP  - 2000 Jun 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - 1014--1021
VI  - 15
IP  - 6
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/15/6/1014.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/15/6/1014.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2000 Jun 01; 15
AB  - To examine the role of the bronchial microvasculature and adhesion molecule expression in severe asthma, the authors have performed an immunohistochemical study on bronchial biopsies comparing 15 glucocorticoid-dependent asthmatics, 15 mild asthmatics and eight control subjects. Serially cut glycol methacrylate-embedded sections were stained with monoclonal antibodies identifying the vessel marker EN-4, intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1, E- and P-selectin. Sections were also stained for lymphocyte function associated antigen (LFA)-1 and very late antigen (VLA)-4. By comparison with mild asthma and nonasthma, severe asthma was characterized by increased numbers of submucosal vessels (p=0.009) which was associated with increased numbers of vessels expressing ICAM-1 (p=0.005). A highly significant correlation was found between the total number of EN-4+ vessels and the vessels expressing ICAM-1 (r=0.85, p=0.01). In contrast, E-selectin expression was lower in severe as compared with mild asthma (p=0.01) but not different from normal. No differences were found between the three groups in the expression of VCAM-1 and P-selectin nor in numbers of LFA-1+ and VLA-4+ cells. The results of this study support the notion that mucosal neovascularization is an important feature of airways remodelling in severe asthma. This is associated with a relatively higher density of vessels expressing intercellular adhesion molecule-1, although the expression of this adhesion molecule per vessel was not raised.