Oxidative stress status in umbilical cord blood from neonates born to mothers with atopic asthma

Advance of antioxidants in asthma treatment

Asthma is an allergic disease, characterized as a recurrent airflow limitation, airway hyperreactivity, and chronic inflammation, involving a variety of cells and cytokines. Reactive oxygen species have been proven to play an important role in asthma. The pathogenesis of oxidative stress in asthma involves an imbalance between oxidant and antioxidant systems that is caused by environment pollutants or endogenous reactive oxygen species from inflammation cells. There is growing evidence that antioxidant treatments that include vitamins and food supplements have been shown to ameliorate this oxidative stress while improving the symptoms and decreasing the severity of asthma. In this review, we summarize recent studies that are related to the mechanisms and biomarkers of oxidative stress, antioxidant treatments in asthma.

Recent developments in the role of reactive oxygen species in allergic asthma

Allergic asthma has a global prevalence, morbidity, and mortality. Many environmental factors, such as pollutants and allergens, are highly relevant to allergic asthma. The most important pathological symptom of allergic asthma is airway inflammation. Accordingly, the unique role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) had been identified as a main reason for this respiratory inflammation. Many studies have shown that inhalation of different allergens can promote ROS generation. Recent studies have demonstrated that several pro-inflammatory mediators are responsible for the development of allergic asthma. Among these mediators, endogenous or exogenous ROS are responsible for the airway inflammation of allergic asthma. Furthermore, several inflammatory cells induce ROS and allergic asthma development. Airway inflammation, airway hyper-responsiveness, tissue injury, and remodeling can be induced by excessive ROS production in animal models. Based on investigations of allergic asthma and ROS formation mechanisms, we have identified several novel anti-inflammatory therapeutic treatments. This review describes the recent data linking ROS to the pathogenesis of allergic asthma.

Oxidative Stress and Bronchial Asthma in Children-Causes or Consequences?

Bronchial asthma is one of the most common chronic inflammatory diseases of the airways. In the pathogenesis of this disease, the interplay among the genes, intrinsic, and extrinsic factors are crucial. Various combinations of the involved factors determine and modify the final clinical phenotype/endotype of asthma. Oxidative stress results from an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species and the capacity of antioxidant defense mechanisms. It was shown that oxidative damage of biomolecules is strongly involved in the asthmatic inflammation. It is evident that asthma is accompanied by oxidative stress in the airways and in the systemic circulation. The oxidative stress is more pronounced during the acute exacerbation or allergen challenge. On the other hand, the genetic variations in the genes for anti-oxidative and pro-oxidative enzymes are variably associated with various asthmatic subtypes. Whether oxidative stress is the consequence of, or the cause for, chronic changes in asthmatic airways is still being discussed. Contribution of oxidative stress to asthma pathology remains at least partially controversial, since antioxidant interventions have proven rather unsuccessful. According to current knowledge, the relationship between oxidative stress and asthmatic inflammation is bidirectional, and genetic predisposition could modify the balance between these two positions-oxidative stress as a cause for or consequence of asthmatic inflammation.

The joint synovium: A critical determinant of articular cartilage fate in inflammatory joint diseases

The synovium constitutes the envelope of articular joints and is a critical provider of synovial fluid components and articular cartilage nutrients. Its inflammation is a predominant feature and cause of joint degeneration in diseases as diverse as rheumatoid, psoriatic, juvenile and idiopathic arthritis, and lupus, gout and lyme disease. These inflammatory joint diseases (IJDs) are due to a wide variety of genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors that trigger, promote, and perpetuate joint destabilization. In spite of this variety of causes, IJDs share main pathological features, namely inflammation of the joint synovium (synovitis) and progressive degeneration of articular cartilage. In addition to being a driving force behind the destruction of articular cartilage in IJD, synovitis is also increasingly being recognized as a significant contributor of articular cartilage degeneration in osteoarthritis, a disease primarily due to aging- or trauma-related wear and tear of cartilage surfaces. In view of this important role of the synovium in determining the fate of articular cartilage, this review focuses on its underlying mechanisms in the pathology of IJD. We address the roles of synovial fibroblasts, macrophages and endothelial cells in the maintenance of joint health and in the destruction of articular cartilage integrity during IJD. Molecular mechanisms that have been recently shown to govern the pathological activities of the resident synovial cells are highlighted. Finally, advantages and disadvantages of targeting these new molecular mechanisms for preventing cartilage degeneration due to chronic inflammation are also discussed.