Less childhood obesity--less persistence of wheeze in teenage girls and boys?

The asthma-obesity link in childhood: open questions, complex evidence, a few answers only

Obesity and asthma are public health priorities in developed countries. Genes which may contribute to the control of both conditions include those encoding for the beta2-adrenergic receptor, tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Prospective studies consistently supported a link between obesity and reported wheezing or asthma diagnosis in children. However, there are still no clear explanations for such a link. On one hand, overweight asthmatic children may perceive their asthma as worse. On the other hand, atopic sensitization and bronchial hyper-reactivity do not explain the observed associations. After puberty, the association between asthma and obesity tends to be stronger in girls than in boys. It is conceivable that severe obesity in adolescent females may aggravate asthma through mechanisms different from those linking prepubertal obesity to unremitting asthma in males. Future studies should therefore address multiple age- and gender-specific hypotheses about the mechanisms that link obesity to asthma throughout childhood.

Alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency: current perspective on research, diagnosis, and management

The Alpha One International Registry (AIR), a multinational research program focused on alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency, was formed in response to a World Health Organization recommendation. Each of the nearly 20 participating countries maintains a national registry of patients with AAT deficiency and contributes to an international database located in Malmö, Sweden. This database is designed to increase understanding of AAT deficiency. Additionally, AIR members are engaged in active, wide-ranging investigations to improve the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of the disease and meet biennially to exchange views and research findings. The fourth biennial meeting was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 2-3 June 2005. This review covers the wide range of AAT deficiency-related topics that were addressed encompassing advances in genetic characterization, risk factor identification, clinical epidemiology, inflammatory and signalling processes, therapeutic advances, and lung imaging techniques.