Asthma.

Inflammation plays an integral role in the pathophysiology of asthma. With advances in molecular biological techniques and newer animal models, our insight into this process is advancing rapidly. A greater understanding of the interactions of the various elements of the inflammatory response and their interactions is thus evolving. This progress in our knowledge and understanding of the disease process appears to raise even more questions, but such is the nature of research. It is also known that no single abnormality of cells or mediators will suffice to explain the pathogenesis of asthma. Enhanced knowledge of molecular and cellular events in the inflammatory process would inevitably lead to newer, more specific, therapeutic agents, which would potentially be curative rather than palliative.