Advances in the Investigation of Asthma Phenotypes

Abstract

Asthma is a complex and heterogeneous disease, which is comprised of seperate phenotypes sharing common characteristics, such as airway inflammation, bronchial hyperresponsiveness and variable airflow limitation. Traditionally, asthma phenotypes have been described by combinations of clinical characteristics, according to the expert s recommendation, but they are now focusing` on the pathobiologic mechanisms often using exploratory statistical methods. Several phenotypes and endotypes have been suggested by biased or unbiased phenotyping approaches. However, more detailed studies are still needed. In the future, more integrated large-scaled consortium of cohorts, including clinical information, genetics, molecular biology, and experiments will promote to understand the pathobiologic mechanisms of asthma phenotypes for the personalized therapy.