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Obesity impacts airway muscle function, increases risk for asthma

Obesity modified how airway muscles worked, causing a greater risk for asthma, according to findings recently published in the American Journal of Physiology — Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.

“To date, no study has shown an intrinsic difference between human airway smooth muscle cells derived from non-obese subjects and those derived from obese subjects,” Sarah Orfanos, MD, second-year resident at the Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine & Science at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and colleagues wrote.

Researchers matched human airway smooth muscle cells from donors with and without obesity by age and gender. These cells were stimulated by carbachol and had their phosphorylation of myosin light chain measured.

Orfanos and colleagues found agonist-induced myosin light chain phosphorylation, mobilization of calcium and cell shortening were greater in the cells from patients with obesity vs. those who were not obese. In addition, myosin light chain response was comparable in the cells obtained from patients with obese non-asthma and non-obese fatal asthma. Cells from female donors had a greater response to carbachol than those from male donors, regardless of insulin pre-treatment.

“This is the first study that shows differential responses of [human airway smooth muscle] cells to agonists depending on the BMI and sex of the subject,” Orfanos and colleagues wrote.

“These findings suggest genetic or epigenetic mechanisms in human airway smooth muscle cells may underlie the molecular mechanism mimicked by obesity. Identifying these mechanisms will provide new therapeutic targets to improve clinical outcome in asthma patients with obesity.” – by Janel Miller

Disclosures: Healio Family Medicine was unable to determine authors’ relevant financial disclosures prior to publication.