Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
J Appl Physiol (1985). 2011 May;110(5):1482-6. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01163.2010. Epub 2011 Jan 20.
The behavior of respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD may involve complicated interactions among multiple factors. Theoretical and experimental data suggest that interdependence among the airways of the bronchial tree leads to the emergence of self-organized patterns of airway narrowing, ventilation defects, and other phenomena when a tipping point is passed. Additionally, evidence from several studies shows that the behavior of an isolated airway is different from an identical airway embedded in the bronchial tree so that experimental results of isolated elements such as airways, airway smooth muscle, or inflammatory pathways may not explain the whole organ behavior. However, there may be factors in the isolated elements that can dramatically change the complex system's behavior. More effective strategies for prevention or recovery from a disease, such as asthma, will depend on our progress in identifying and understanding the essential parts of the self-organized behavior that is involved.
哮喘和 COPD 等呼吸疾病的行为可能涉及多种因素之间的复杂相互作用。理论和实验数据表明，当达到临界点时，支气管树的气道之间的相互依存关系会导致气道狭窄、通气缺陷和其他现象的自组织模式出现。此外，多项研究的证据表明，孤立气道的行为与嵌入支气管树中的相同气道不同，因此，气道、气道平滑肌或炎症途径等孤立元件的实验结果可能无法解释整个器官的行为。然而，孤立元件中可能存在一些因素，可以显著改变复杂系统的行为。更有效的预防或从疾病（如哮喘）中恢复的策略将取决于我们在识别和理解所涉及的自组织行为的基本部分方面取得的进展。
