<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/fd6ea891-8843-4d9d-93f5-42b6f9deda27/15E39844-51BD-4E8D-8E2E-8D84C9C28023/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html" href="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.forbes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html"><AREA href="#" coords="175,0,250,30"></AREA></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html">A protein that may have originally evolved to help protect the airways now appears to be a biomarker that indicates severe asthma. And it may also play a role in the development of asthma, according to new research.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html"> Nov. 15 issue of the <I>New England Journal of Medicine</I>, Yale University researchers said that people with severe asthma were more likely to have elevated levels of the protein known as YKL-40 in their blood compared to people without asthma.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html">Dr. Geoffrey Chupp</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html">added</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html"><P>However, both Dickey and Chupp noted that the new study doesn't prove that YKL-40 is a cause of asthma, only that elevated levels appear to be a marker of severe asthma.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html">YKL-40 is what's known as a chitinase-like protein.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html"> It attaches itself to chitin</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html">Down the road, there could be new treatments and new ways to characterize asthma."</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html">presence of chitin in the lungs may make the body believe that it has a helminth infection that it needs to defend against, Dickey said.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html">may now </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html">reacti</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/11/14/hscout610043.html">to harmless dust mites instead.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/15E39844-51BD-4E8D-8E2E-8D84C9C28023/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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