Barnes P J
Department of Thoracic Medicine, Imperial College, National Heart and Lung Institute, London, United Kingdom.
Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 1998 Nov;158(5 Pt 3):S123-32. doi: 10.1164/ajrccm.158.supplement_2.13tac800.
Airway smooth muscle contributes to changes in airway caliber not only through the variations in its tone but also through its contribution to thickness of the airway wall. Until recently, most attention was paid to the agents that altered airway smooth muscle tone, their receptors, the signal transduction pathways they activated, and the mechanisms of contraction and relaxation themselves. Lately, the regulation of smooth muscle proliferation has received increasing attention, and, most recently, the possible role of smooth muscle as a source of inflammatory mediators has been recognized. Airway smooth muscle cells are now seen as playing an important interactive role with inflammatory and structural cells in the response to injury and repair of the airways.
气道平滑肌不仅通过其张力变化，还通过其对气道壁厚度的影响，来促使气道管径发生改变。直到最近，大多数研究都集中在改变气道平滑肌张力的因子、它们的受体、所激活的信号转导途径以及收缩和舒张本身的机制上。近来，平滑肌增殖的调节受到了越来越多的关注，并且最近，平滑肌作为炎症介质来源的可能作用也已得到认可。现在认为气道平滑肌细胞在气道损伤和修复的反应中与炎症细胞和结构细胞发挥着重要的相互作用。
