EDITORIALS
The airway epithelium in health and disease: "calm on the surface, paddling furiously underneath"
Correspondence to:
Professor R L Smyth, Division of Child Health, School of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine, University of Liverpool, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool L12 2AP, UK; r.l.smyth@liv.ac.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The airway epithelium, which is exposed to antigens and microbes throughout respiration, provides an enormous and delicate interface with the external environment. In major conducting airways the epithelium is covered by surface liquid, which includes an overlying mucous layer onto which inhaled particles are trapped. The physical defence mechanisms of the airway epithelium include the mucociliary escalator and complex structures known as tight junctions which control paracellular transport of inhaled material. In response to immunological challenge, epithelial cell surfaces produce antimicrobial chemicals (such as surfactants and defensins), cytokines (particularly type I and type III interferons) and chemokines following activation of their pattern recognition receptors, including Toll-like receptors (TLRs). This leads to recruitment of immune cells including dendritic cells, T cells and B cells.
Given the speed, complexity and specificity of these responses, it is likely that, in an environment full of antigens such as the lung, epithelial surfaces will have
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