CARDIA Studies Open Window on Heart, Lun...(ne at the University of New Mexico Healt...),Health

Research in mice suggest that adiponectin plays a role in airway inflammation and airway hyperactivity (twitchiness), both of which are factors in asthma.

"Because of the increase in asthma prevalence, as well as obesity, there should be a lot of interest in continuing to study the effect of fat cells on asthma," Sood said.

The second study found that high levels of a protein called ICAM-1 are associated with lower lung function. ICAM-1, present in endothelial cells that line the arteries, helps trigger the immune system's inflammatory response to "invaders" such as cholesterol deposits.

"Circulating ICAM-1 is a measure of dysfunction of the endothelial cells, which are the intimal lining of arteries and are in capillaries," study co-author David Jacobs, a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, said in a prepared statement.

"We've known that people with lower lung function have more cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular death than those with better lung function, and that these two things are somehow related, but the relationship between the lungs and blood vessels has been puzzling," Jacobs said. "For instance, air pollution, although it is breathed in through the lungs, has been shown to cause more heart disease than lung disease."

Jacobs and colleagues analyzed ICAM-1 levels in 2,455 CARDIA participants in year 15 of the study and compared it to their lung function in year 20.

"We found a fairly substantial decline in lung function in people with the highest levels of ICAM, compared with people with lower levels, regardless of their weight," Jacobs said. "It suggests that lung function and endothelial health are related in some way. I think of endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress and inflammation as evil triplets, feeding on each
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