Diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB) is a chronic inflammatory lung disease, which predominantly affects East Asians. Clinically, DPB is characterized by chronic inflammation of the respiratory bronchioles and sinobronchial infection. While DPB is frequently compared with cystic fibrosis, a common genetic disease encountered in Caucasians, neither pancreatic insufficiency nor any obvious abnormalities of the sweat electrolytes are seen in DPB, and the two are considered to be entirely different diseases. Immunogenetic studies revealed a strong association with human HLA-B54 in Japanese, whereas an association with HLA-A11 was reported in Koreans. These findings imply that a major susceptibility gene may be located between the HLA-A and HLA-B loci on the short arm of human chromosome 6. Recently, novel mucin-like genes has been cloned in this candidate region. And it was found that their polymorphisms were associated with DPB. Over the past two decades, DPB has shifted from being a near-fatal to a treatable disease. A significant improvement in the prognosis of this disease has been attributed to the long-term use of macrolides. The five-year survival rate increased to about 90% after treatment with erythromycin became widely used.
