Mucous Obstruction and Airway Hyperresponsiveness in Mice

Abstract

To the Editor: Mucous obstruction may be an important component of airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), an idea that has received support by Dr. Lundblad and colleagues, in their article on airway closure and AHR (1). They used input impedance analysis and CT imaging to prove that airway closure at the dorsal base of the lung importantly determined AHR in a mouse model of asthma. In a similar model, we found that inhibition of methacholine-induced mucin secretion by a MARCKS protein–related peptide attenuated AHR measured by double-chamber plethysmography (DCP) (2). Even after eliminating the nasal component of airway resistance change, the effect of mucus hypersecretion on AHR remained (2, 3). Since DCP and input impedance analysis are very different techniques, our results are not directly comparable. However, there are some interesting similarities to our findings.