ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the essential characteristics of hyperpnea induced airway responses in exercise-induced asthma and in mechanically ventilated guinea pigs. It examines evidence that endogenously released sensory neuropeptides play a critical role in guinea pig hyperpnea-induced bronchoconstriction (HIB). The chapter explores the hypothesis that endogenous sensory neuropeptide release plays a key role in the pathogenesis of human HIB as well based on the striking phenomenological similarities between HIB in guinea pigs and HIB in human exercise-induced asthma. Exercise is a common precipitant of airflow obstruction in subjects with asthma. HIB follows a similar time course as exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, though the bronchodilatation observed during exercise is absent during hyperpnea, and airflow obstruction peaks earlier than after exercise. Tantalum bronchograms have localized hyperpnea induced airway narrowing in guinea pigs to the central conducting bronchi. Corresponding axial distributions of airway narrowing have yet to be determined in human asthma.
