Airway smooth muscle and airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma: mechanisms of airway smooth muscle dysfunction.

Abstract

Airway smooth muscle plays a pivotal role in modulating bronchomotor tone. Modulation of contractile and relaxation signaling is critical to alleviate the airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) associated with asthma. Emerging studies examining the phenotype of ASM in the context of asthma provide rich avenues to develop more effective therapeutics to attenuate the AHR associated with the disease.