Investigators: Anthony Kicic, Stephen Stick
The findings from this study show that in children with asthma this protective barrier is different from children without asthma. It is leakier making it easier for viruses and toxins to enter the cells. Viral infections makes this leakiness worse. We also observed that the cells did not fully repair after injury, due to a lack of specific growth compound and the abnormal production of anchoring protein that helps the cell move. We also compared how these repair responses changed with age and severity of asthma, by comparing cells sampled from children and young adults. We have shown that this failure to repair happened very early in asthma and was sustained in adulthood.
Funder: NHMRC
External collaborators:
- Clinical Professor Francis Lannigan; Head of Paediatrics, SJOG
- Prof Darryl Knight, University of Newcastle, NSW
- Associate Prof Paul Rigby, CMCA, WA