Angiogenesis in asthma: Altered angiogenic potential of bronchial smooth muscle cells of asthmatic patients

Aims: Airway remodeling, a key pathology in asthma, includes thickening of the airway wall, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of bronchial smooth muscle cells (BSMC), and increased vascularity. BSMC are known to produce angiogenic factors. Objective: To compare angiogenic potential of BSMC from asthmatic and non-asthmatic patients and to identify asthma-specific angiogenic factors. Methods: Primary BSMC were isolated from human airway tissue of asthmatic and non-asthmatic patients. Conditioned medium (CM) collected from BSMC isolates was tested for angiogenic capacity using the endothelial cell (EC)-spheroid in vitro…