A new paradigm for asthma pathogenesis is presented in which exaggerated inflammation
and remodeling in the airways are a consequence of abnormal injury and repair responses
arising from a subject's susceptibility to components of the inhaled environment. An
epithelial-mesenchymal trophic unit becomes activated to drive pathologic remodeling and
smooth muscle proliferation through complex cytokine interactions. Histamine, prostanoids,
and cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLTs) are potent contractile agonists of airway smooth muscle …