Study Disproves Inflammation as Common Link Between Obesity and Asthma

Though there is a strong link between obesity and asthma, inflammation is not the condition's long-suspected mediator, according to a group of researchers.

Since the prevalence of obesity and asthma has been increasing steadily, epidemiologists have speculated that there is an underlying condition that connects the two. But one long-suspected link, the systemic inflammation associated with obesity, has been ruled out.

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"We were disappointed not to find a 'smoking gun' that would explain the common association between obesity and asthma," said lead researcher, D. Robin Taylor, M.D., of the University of Otago in New Zealand.

"However, this research points us to other possibilities that future research should examine," he added.

The results were reported in the first issue for September of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.

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It's a lung condition characterized by inflammation of the bronchi and constriction of the airways that result in coughing, wheezing or breathlessness. Allergy and other airway irritants can trigger it

"We hypothesized that the low-grade systemic inflammation present in obesity would augment the inflammation of asthma (a synergistic effect)," said Dr. Taylor.

"Or alternatively, that the inflammation of obesity might affect the airways independently (an additive effect), perhaps resulting in mixed airway inflammation," he added.

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In order to determine if there was indeed an interaction between systemic and local inflammation, the researchers recruited 79 women-20 who were obese with asthma, 19 who were of a normal weight with asthma, 20 who were obese but who did not have asthma and 20 controls.

Asthmatics were told to stop using their anti-inflammatory inhaler treatment to avoid confounding effects until "loss of control." After the withdrawal period of four weeks, subjects underwent blood tests and tests for biomarkers of systemic and airway inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and cytokines in blood and inflammatory cells and cytokines in sputum.

Body Mass Index
The BMI calculator helps you assess your weight indicating if it is normal or if you are underweight or overweight, based on your height.

Those that are known to be relevant in both obesity and asthma were chosen. The researchers then analyzed for interactions between systemic and airway-specific markers of inflammation.

"What we found was that although inflammatory cells and other biomarkers of inflammation were increased, there was no significant interaction demonstrated between obesity and asthma," said Dr. Taylor.

Although their inflammation hypothesis was not supported by their results, Dr. Taylor points out that it does provide valuable direction for future research.

"This does not change the fact that there is a well-established link between asthma and obesity. Sometimes a negative result is important, and the results add to our body of knowledge regarding the obesity-asthma link. Now we need to look in other directions for the answers," the researcher said.

Source-ANI
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