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EDITORIAL FOCUS
1Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, and 2Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Human Genomics, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Submitted 12 February 2007 ; accepted in final form 18 April 2007
High levels of adenosine can be measured from the lungs of asthmatics, and it is well recognized that aerosolized 5'AMP, the precursor of adenosine, elicits robust bronchoconstriction in patients with this disease. Characterization of mice with elevated adenosine levels secondary to the loss of adenosine deaminase (ADA) expression, the primary metabolic enzyme for adenosine, further support a role for this ubiquitous mediator in the pathogenesis of asthma. To begin to identify pathways by which adenosine can alter airway tone, we examined adenosine-induced bronchoconstriction in four mouse lines, each lacking one of the receptors for this nucleoside. We show, using direct measures of airway mechanics, that adenosine can increase airway resistance and that this increase in resistance is mediated by binding the A1 receptor. Further examination of this response using pharmacologically, surgically, and genetically manipulated mice supports a model in which adenosine-induced bronchoconstriction occurs indirectly through the activation of sensory neurons.
knockout; mast cell; nerves
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