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. 2016 Jul;138(1):294-297.e4.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2015.12.1315. Epub 2016 Feb 28.

An inflammation-independent contraction mechanophenotype of airway smooth muscle in asthma

Steven S An  1 , Wayne Mitzner  2 , Wan-Yee Tang  2 , Kwangmi Ahn  3 , A-Rum Yoon  2 , Jessie Huang  2 , Onur Kilic  2 , Hwan Mee Yong  2 , Jed W Fahey  4 , Sarvesh Kumar  2 , Shyam Biswal  2 , Stephen T Holgate  5 , Reynold A Panettieri Jr  6 , Julian Solway  7 , Stephen B Liggett  8
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An inflammation-independent contraction mechanophenotype of airway smooth muscle in asthma

Steven S An et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2016 Jul.
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing financial interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Single-cell analyses on the identity and state of ASM mechanics as measured by Fourier transform traction microscopy. (A) Representative traction maps of single human ASM cells obtained from non-asthma and asthma lung donors. The white lines show the cell boundary, and the colors show the magnitude of the traction in Pascal (Pa) indexed to the color bar at the right. Arrows represent the direction and relative magnitude of the tractions. Scale bars represent 50 microns. (B and C) cell projected area and traction of isolated human ASM cells (non-asthma, n = 134; asthma, n = 154 individual cell measurements). For these studies, cells were derived from donor lungs of 6 non-asthmatics and 6 asthmatics (Table E1), and plated onto an inert elastic gel (8 kPa) coated with type I collagen. Bars are the geometric means of the respective lung donors. (D) Net contractile moments of human ASM cells in terms of early (passages 1–4: non-asthmatics, n = 69; asthmatics, n = 81) versus late (passages 6–11: non-asthmatics, n = 65; asthmatics, n = 73). (E) Net contractile moments of human ASM cells measured on the relatively soft (1 kPa: non-asthmatics, n = 43; asthmatics, n = 46) versus the relatively hard (8 kPa: non-asthmatics, n = 34; asthmatics, n = 28) elastic gels. Data are presented as geometric mean ± SE.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Asthmatic ASM exhibits increased reactivity than non-asthmatic ASM as measured by magnetic twisting cytometry. Dynamic changes in cell stiffness in response to 10μM histamine (left) and 10μM methacholine (right) of ASM derived from individual non-asthma (A and B) and asthma (C and D) lung donors. Cells were derived from 12 additional donor lungs (Table E2). For each individual human ASM cell, baseline stiffness was measured for the first 60 s, and after drug addition stiffness was measured continuously for the next 240 s. For each cell, stiffness was normalized to its baseline stiffness prior to the agonist stimulation. Data are presented as mean ± SE (n = 68–562 individual cell measurements per donor lung). (E and F) Nested model shows increased cell stiffening response to spasmogens in asthmatic ASM than nonasthmatic ASM. Data are presented as mean ± SE from 6 asthma and 6 non-asthma donor lungs.
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