Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, in which many inflammatory genes are overexpressed. Transcription factor, nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB), which is thought to control the transcriptional initiation of inflammatory genes, has been poorly investigated in asthma. In the present report, bronchial cells (BCs), recovered by bronchial brushing in healthy and heaves-affected horses (i.e., an animal model of asthma), were assessed for NF-kappaB activity. Small amounts of active NF-kappaB were present in BCs of healthy horses, whereas high levels of NF-kappaB activity was found during crisis (i.e., acute airway obstruction) in all heaves-affected horses. Three weeks after the crisis, the level of NF-kappaB activity found in BCs of heaves-affected horses was highly correlated (p < 0.01) to the degree of residual lung dysfunction. Unexpectedly, active NF- kappaB complexes found in BCs of heaves-affected horses were mainly p65 homodimers, rather than classic p65-p50 heterodimers. At last, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression paralleled p65 homodimers activity in these cells. These results demonstrate that the kinetics of NF-kappaB activity is strongly related to the course of the disease and confirm the relevance of NF-kappaB as a putative target in asthma therapy. Moreover, uncommon p65 homodimers could transactivate, in BCs, a subset of genes, such as ICAM-1, characteristic of chronic airway inflammation.