Asthma: Application of Cell and Molecular Biology Techniques to Unravel Causes and Pathophysiological Mechanisms -- Culture of Normal Human Airway Epithelial Cells and Measurement of Mucin Synthesis and Secretion -- Brush Biopsy and Culture of Airway Epithelial Cells: ?-Adrenergic Receptor System Function -- Isolation and Characterization of Human Airway Fibroblasts in Culture -- Flow Cytometric Analysis of Blood Monocytes and Alveolar Macrophages -- Expression of IL-10 and GM-CSF in Blood Monocytes and Alveolar Macrophages -- MAP Kinase Expression in Eosinophils -- Human Eosinophil Isolation and the Measurement of Apoptosis -- Adhesion of T-Cells to Airway Smooth Muscle Cells -- Proliferation of Circulating T-Cells -- Differential Display Analysis of Inflammatory Genes in Airway Epithelium -- Analysis of Transcription Factor Activation: NF?B as a Regulator of Inflammatory Genes in Epithelial Cells -- Transient Transgenic Approaches for Investigating the Role of GM-CSF in Pulmonary Inflammation and Immune Diseases -- Quantitative Analysis of RANTES mRNA in Endobronchial Biopsies Using Polymerase Chain Reaction -- Intracellular Cytokine Staining for Analysis by Flow Cytometry -- Localization of IL-4 and IL-5 mRNA in Bronchial Biopsies -- Immunohistochemical Analysis of Adhesion Molecules in Airway Biopsies -- Site-Directed Mutagenesis in the Investigation of ?-Adrenoreceptor Exosite -- Methods for Determining ?2-Adrenoreceptor Genotype -- Modulation of ?-Adrenoreceptor Expression in the Airways -- Chemical Mutational Analysis of Glucocorticoid Receptor -- Histone Acetylation and Deacetylation -- Genome-Wide Search for Asthma Genes.

As asthma increases in prevalence and severity around the world, the need for understanding its basic mechanisms and for developing better drugs and preventative measures becomes more urgent. In Asthma: Mechanisms and Protocols, K. Fan Chung and Ian Adcock bring together the first collection of laboratory methods for studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of asthma. Leading experts describe highly effective methods for obtaining cells from asthmatic airways, analyzing gene and protein expression in these clinical samples, and using molecular and cellular tools to study cytokine expression and release in this disease. There are also cutting-edge techniques for studying asthma-related genes and genetic polymorphisms, and for understanding the effects of asthma treatment. User-friendly and state-of-the-art, Asthma: Mechanisms and Protocols provides all asthma researchers-whether novice or experienced, whether in experimental or clinical research-with a first-class collection of readily reproducible pharmacological, cellular, molecular, biochemical, and genetic methods for elucidating not only the mechanisms of the disease itself, but also of the drugs for asthma's treatment.