Immunopathology of Airway Surface Liquid Dehydration Disease

Figure 1

Diagrammatic comparisons of normal and mucoobstructive airways. (a) In normal airways, the normal functioning of epithelial ion channels maintains a healthy ASL layer. The normal functioning of the mucociliary clearance system efficiently clears aberrant ASL constituents. As a result, the epithelial layer consists of a balanced proportion of various epithelial cell types, including ciliated cells, club cells, and goblet cells. In addition, resident macrophages continue to perform their sentinel roles. (b) In mucoobstructive airways, an ion-channel defect causes ASL dehydration, which leads to mucus hyperconcentration, mucoobstruction, mucous cell metaplasia, bacterial infection, and airway inflammation.

(a)

(b)