This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The overarching goal of this research is to understand the pathophysiology and natural history of childhood asthma. A small portion of childhood asthmatics develop evidence of lung function impairment that is resistant to pharmacotherapy that may be due to irreversible airway disease. The central hypothesis is that young adults with irreversible airway disease may be differentiated from control asthmatics by structural and pathophysiological changes demonstrated by CT and increased methacholine airway sensitivity but not on the basis of induced sputum or EBC. This descriptive, pilot study seeks to employ two novel, non-invasive techniques exhaled breath condensates (EBC) and induced sputum (IS) to study airway remodeling and inflammation in asthma. Samples collected from 40 asthmatic adults and 40 age-matched controls will provide EBS and IC samples. The samples will be analyzed for markers of airway inflammation and remodeling. In addition several methodologic issues will be analyzed including diurnal variation, intra-subject reproducibility, between subject variance for asthmatic and normal subjects, optimal sampling time.
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