Abstract: AIM: To explore the effects of myofi-broblast, TGF-β₁ and IFN-γon asthma airwy remodel-ing and observe the influence of roxithromycin on asth-ma airway remodeling .METHODS: In the experi-ment, thirty SD rats were randomly divided into the asthma group(group A, n =10) , the sodium chloride control group (group C, n =10) and the roxithromycin group(group R, n =10) .The rats were sensitized and stimulated with ovalbumin/Al(OH)3 and OVA atomiza-tion inhalation respectively to establish the asthma mod-el.The α-smooth muscle actin(α-SMA) expression of tracheal subepithelium myofibroblast were determined by immunohistochemistry .The integral optical density (IOD) were quantitatively analysed by image analysis technique .The concentration of TGF-β₁ and IFN-γin bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF) were measured by ELISA .RESULTS: The IOD value suggested that the α-SMA expression of tracheal subepithelium myofibro-blast were increased compared with group C (P<0.01) , and the expression in group R were decreased comparedwith group A (P<0.05) .The expression of TGF-β₁ in BALF in groupA were increased than that in group C(P<0.01) , and TGF-β₁ expression in group R were decreased than that in group A(P<0.01) , but were still higher than that in group C(P<0.05) .The expressions of IFN-γin BALF in group A were de-creased than that in group C(P<0.01) , and IFN-γ expression in group Rwere increased than that in group A(P<0.01) , but were still lower than that in group C(P<0.05) .CONCLUSION: Myofibroblast plays an important role during airway remodeling .Roxithro-mycin may decrease the expressions of TGF-β₁ and in-crease the expressions of IFN-γ that inhibits the prolif-eration and expression of myofibroblast .So roxithromy-cin may be effective drugs in inhibitting asthma airway remodeling.

Key words: KEY WORDS asthma, airway remodeling, myofi-broblast, roxithromycin