Nitrotyrosine formation in the airways and lung parenchyma of patients with asthma☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Tissue specimens and routine histologic examination
Lung tissue specimens were obtained at autopsies performed at Fletcher Allen Health Care, the teaching hospital of the University of Vermont College of Medicine, and from the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital of Nedlands, Australia. Clinical data on the subjects whose lung tissue was analyzed were collected from review of coroner and hospital records. The protocol was approved by the Committees on Human Research in the Medical Sciences at the University of Vermont and the Sir Charles Gairdner
RESULTS
The clinical characteristics of the subjects involved in the study are shown in Table I. There were 7 asthmatic and 6 nonasthmatic subjects. Of the 7 asthmatic patients, 5 had died of status asthmaticus and 2 had died from other nonrespiratory causes. These latter 2 subjects were both smokers and atopic and were taking inhaled β-agonists regularly but were not receiving corticosteroids nor were ever hospitalized for asthma. The 5 subjects with fatal asthma were all nonsmokers and atopic and
DISCUSSION
This study has demonstrated the presence of nitrotyrosine and hence evidence of formation of reactive nitrogen species in the airways and lung parenchyma of patients with asthma who died of status asthmaticus or other nonrespiratory causes.
Before the implications of these findings are considered, a few technical considerations are important. First, we assumed that the presence of immunoreactivity against nitrotyrosine was evidence for the formation of reactive nitrogen species. Nitrotyrosine
Acknowledgements
We thank Marilyn Wadsworth of the University of Vermont Cell Imaging Facility for technical assistance, Gary Nelson of Medical Illustration at the University of Vermont College of Medicine for assistance with the schematic diagram, and Charles G. Irvin, PhD, and Gerald S. Davis, MD, of the University of Vermont College of Medicine for their review of the manuscript.
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Cited by (0)
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Supported by National Institutes of Health grant No. K08 HL03517 and the American Lung Association of Vermont (D. A. K.) and Parker B. Francis Foundation and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health grant No. R03 OH03457 (Y. J. H.).
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Reprint requests: David A. Kaminsky, MD, Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Given C-317, Burlington, VT 05405.
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