American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · May 2017
Lung Pathologies in a Chronic Inflammation Mouse Model are Independent of Eosinophil Degranulation.
The release of eosinophil granule proteins in the lungs of patients with asthma has been dogmatically linked with lung remodeling and airway hyperresponsiveness. However, the demonstrated inability of established mouse models to display the eosinophil degranulation occurring in human subjects has prevented a definitive in vivo test of this hypothesis. ⋯ These data suggest that improvements observed in patients with asthma responding to therapeutic strategies ablating eosinophils may occur as a consequence of targeting immunoregulatory mechanisms and not by simply eliminating the destructive activities of these purportedly end-stage effector cells.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · May 2017
Multicenter StudyA Severe Asthma Disease Signature from Gene Expression Profiling of Peripheral Blood from U-BIOPRED Cohorts.
Stratification of asthma at the molecular level, especially using accessible biospecimens, could greatly enable patient selection for targeted therapy. ⋯ Blood gene expression differences between clinically defined subgroups of patients with asthma and individuals without asthma, as well as subgroups of patients with severe asthma defined by transcript profiles, show the value of blood analysis in stratifying patients with asthma and identifying molecular pathways for further study. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01982162).
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · May 2017
Randomized Controlled TrialPedometer Step Count Targets During Pulmonary Rehabilitation in COPD: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Increasing physical activity is a key therapeutic aim in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) improves exercise capacity, but there is conflicting evidence regarding its ability to improve physical activity levels. ⋯ Pedometer-directed step-count targets during an outpatient PR program did not enhance moderate-intensity physical activity levels in people with COPD. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01719822).