SERPINE1 and asthma: Furthermore, at least in established wheeze and asthma, we know that the epithelium is damaged, with evidence of increased epithelial loss (49), increased shedding of epithelial cells in BAL (50), increased EGFR expression in bronchial biopsies (51), and a reduced wound-healing ability despite elevation in plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (52), again suggesting that epithelial function may hold the key to predicting future risk of asthma.