Preface to the proceedings of the Workshop on Eosinophils in Allergy and Related Diseases 2016

Eosinophils are cells well known involved in various allergic immune reactions. However, their roles in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases are still incompletely understood. The 30th Workshop on Eosinophils in Allergy and Related Diseases was held on October 22, 2016 at National Center of Sciences in Tokyo. The Workshop was established by Prof. Sohei Makino, Dokkyo Medical University, in 1988, held annually and was organized by Professors Makino and Takeshi Fukuda (Dokkyo Medical University) and Prof. Makoto Nagata (Saitama Medical University). The 2016 Workshop was supervised by Prof. Kohei Yamauchi, Iwate Medical University, and comprised 26 oral presentations, including two special lectures and one luncheon lecture. The oral presentation was programmed into 8 sessions including 1) Mast cells/Basophils, 2) Eosinophilic inflammation, 3) Virus/FungusClinical, 4) Eosinophils/Asthma, 5) Airway epithelial cells, 6) Animal models/Allergens, 7) Animal models/Disease analysis, 8) Animal models/Pathophysiology analysis. Prof. Tamaoki (Tokyo Women's Medical University) gave us an educational lecture “The role of obesity in severe asthma”. Dr. Eric Bradford (Project Physician Leader, GlaxoSmithKline) made the key note lecture “IL-5 targeted therapy for severe asthma”. Prof. Isao Ohno gave us a special lecture “Neuropsychiatry phenotype in asthma: psychological stressinduced alterations of the neuroendocrine-immune system in allergic airway inflammation”. We are pleased to announce that Allergology International (AI) is publishing the proceedings of the 30thWorkshop on Eosinophils in Allergy and Related Diseases, containing one review article, five original articles and six letters to the editor, all of which were peerreviewed and accepted through the review process of Allergology International. We hope that many researchers who are interested in allergic reactions and the pathophysiology of allergic diseases will find this issue stimulating. In the review article, Prof. Ohno strengthened the concept of stress-induced asthma using murine models. It had been thought that psychological stress is an important factor in exacerbations of airway inflammation in asthma. However, since inhaled corticosteroid improves asthmatic symptoms dramatically, attention to the psychological stress in asthma had decreased due to lack of strong evidence suggesting an interaction between stress and airway inflammation. Prof. Ohno demonstrated interesting evidences suggesting interplay between neuroendocrine activity and psychological stress-induced enhancement of airway inflammation using murine asthma models.