What are the mechanisms of severe asthma – is it about cells in the lung? Or is it about endotype of asthma?

What are the mechanisms of severe asthma – is it about cells in the lung? Or is it about endotype of asthma?

American colleagues have recently studied a large clinical cohort of severe asthma, suggesting that specific cells, so called chymase positive Mast cells (MC TC ; Balzar et al.; Mast Cell Phenotype, Location, and Activation in Severe Asthma- Data from the Severe Asthma Research Program, AJRCCM)

http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/short/183/3/299?rss=1

Will one cell explain severe asthma. It is unlikely. However, this finding is important, as the additional understanding of mast cells and mast cell function probably is going to help find new treatments in asthma, as well as other allergic diseases http://bit.ly/fkOx0C.

Personally, I am confident that mast cells will be involved in one or several specific endotypes of asthma http://bit.ly/h6B2ff and http://bit.ly/h6B2ff , but is unlikely to be involved in any patient within the asthma syndrome. Whether the mast cell will be the driver of the disease, or a downstream player in the process, remains to be determined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_cells

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endotype