ABSTRACT

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease. However, the majority of asthmatic patients (approximately 90%) show evidence of atopic (immunoglobulin E [IgE]-mediated) allergy, and even those with so-called intrinsic asthma exhibit increased local production of IgE in the airways (Barnes 2008). Dr. Kasperska-Zajac will discuss dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in allergic diseases including asthma in a following chapter in this book, so parts of this chapter on asthma may overlap his work. Therefore, I will focus this chapter on my experimental studies on asthma.