Oxidative stress and lung inflammation in airways disease

Oxidative stress results from an oxidant/antioxidant imbalance in favour of oxidants. A large number of studies have demonstrated that increased oxida tive burden occurs in airways diseases, shown by increased marks of oxidati ve stress in the airspaces and systemically in these patients. There is now substantial evidence that oxidative stress plays an important role in the injurious and inflammatory responses in airways diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In addition to these proinfl ammatory mechanisms resulting from oxidative stress, protective mechanisms such as the upregulation of protective antioxidant genes also occur. At pre sent, effective antioxidant therapy that has good bioavailability and poten cy is not available. Such drugs are being developed and should in the futur e allow the hypothesis that oxidative stress is a fundamental factor in the inflammation, which occurs in these airways diseases to be tested. (C) 200 1 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.