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Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVE, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Adult, Asthma, Becaplermin, Cells, Cultured, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Female, Fibroblasts, Humans, Lung, Male, Phenotype, Pilot Projects, Platelet-Derived Growth Factor, Procollagen, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-sis, Receptors, Platelet-Derived Growth Factor.
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Do airway fibroblasts exhibit a synthetic phenotype in severe asthma? Context: Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) may have a significant role in airway remodeling in asthma, because it is a powerful inductor of many airway fibroblast activities such as collagen synthesis. To determine whether PDGF is a significant contributor to airway remodeling in patients with asthma by enhancing airway fibroblast procollagen I expression. Six normal controls without asthma, 10 subjects with mild to moderate asthma, and 5 subjects with severe asthma underwent bronchoscopy with endobronchial biopsy. Biopsies were placed in Dulbecco modified Eagle medium and fibroblasts cultured in the presence and absence of PDGF isoforms -AA, -BB, and -AB (1, 5, 10, 100 ng/mL) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (100 ng/mL). Fibroblast procollagen I and PDGF receptors (PDGFRs) alpha and beta expression were determined by ELISA. Platelet-derived growth factor BB significantly enhanced fibroblast procollagen I expression in patients with severe asthma compared with patients with mild/moderate asthma and normal controls. Furthermore, the baseline fibroblast expression of PDGFR-beta was significantly greater in patients with severe asthma compared with the other groups.
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This pilot study suggests that airway fibroblasts from patients with severe asthma exhibit a synthetic phenotype, which may be driven by the overexpression of PDGFR-beta. Final Decision: yes