Activation of smooth muscle in the airway wall, force production, and airway narrowing.

Airway narrowing depends on smooth muscle force production and muscle shortening, but the structural and geometric properties exhibited by individual generations of the bronchial tree largely determine the extent and characteristics of airway narrowing. Properties of major importance include the nature and integrity of the epithelium, the structural and mechanical properties of the airway wall, as well as airway diameter. The influence of these properties on airway narrowing measured as flow or flow resistance in large and small diameter segments of airways from pig lung is described using a novel preparation, the perfused bronchial segment.