Mass cytometry as a tool to evaluate chronic inflammatory airway diseases

Background: Chronic inflammatory airway diseases are conditions that can affect both the lower and upper airways. Their pathophysiology is associated with epithelial barrier dysfunction and skewed immune response, predominantly toward a type 2 profile. The detailed underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood, highlighting the need for high-dimensional approaches to comprehensively characterize structural and immune cells in these diseases. Mass cytometry enables simultaneous assessment of over 50 cellular markers, providing deeper insight into cellular phenotypes in the airways. Methods: The scientific literature was searched using databases (PubMed), artificial intelligence tools (Consensus and Copilot), and the reference lists of relevant studies. The findings were synthesized and discussed to provide an overview of the application of mass cytometry in chronic inflammatory airway diseases. Results: Mass cytometry has been applied to investigate immune profiles in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using peripheral blood and lower and upper airway samples. Compared with peripheral blood, analysis of samples from the airways is less common, and standardized protocols remain limited. Mass cytometry-based analysis of chronic airway diseases revealed phenotypic disturbances in various adaptive and innate immune cell populations, shedding light on disease mechanisms. Conclusion: Advancing the development of novel therapies and guiding personalized treatment strategies require precise definition of disease endotypes through the identification of altered cellular players and molecular pathways. High-dimensional techniques such as mass cytometry can address this need by enabling detailed investigation of structural and immune cells in airway diseases and beyond.