TY - JOUR T1 - Intrinsic and environmental factors contribute to ciliary dysfunction of human airway epithelial cells in asthma JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 40 IS - Suppl 56 SP - P3731 AU - Wing Yan Heidi Wan AU - Lucy B. Woodman AU - Robert A. Hirst AU - Edith Gomez AU - Andrew J. Wardlaw AU - Christopher O'Callaghan AU - Christopher E. Brightling Y1 - 2012/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P3731.abstract N2 - Dysfunctional epithelial ciliary function plays a major role in chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma. However the underlying mechanism is not yet clear. We hypothesized that ciliary dysfunction of distal epithelial cells is due to intrinsic and/or environmental factors.Primary human basal epithelial cell cultures were differentiated in vitro (ALI). Following pre-incubation ±antibiotics and exposure to fresh asthmatic sputum for 24h cell strips were collected. Videos of ciliary epithelial side profiles were recorded using a high-speed camera. Ciliary beat frequency (CBF) and beat patterns were assessed. Microbiology was assessed by routine culture & qPCR, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by DCFDA assays.Asthmatic and healthy ALI showed a similar baseline ciliary function. The effect of asthmatic sputum, without antibiotics, on ciliary function in asthmatic ALI is shown below:View this table:Bacterial load increased overtime but was not different between groups. ROS generation was increased in asthmatic vs healthy basal cells (LogEC50 -0.5±0.2 vs -1.3±0.2, p=0.05).Our data suggests that both extrinsic factors i.e. bacterial load and intrinsic abnormalities e.g. ROS handling may contribute to the asthmatic ciliary dysfunction. ER -