Original Articles: Mechanisms of AllergyEffect of ozone and nitrogen dioxide on the release of proinflammatory mediators from bronchial epithelial cells of nonatopic nonasthmatic subjects and atopic asthmatic patients in vitro☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Nonatopic nonasthmatic subjects and atopic asthmatic patients
Twenty-eight volunteers (12 women and 16 men) with a mean age of 29 years (range, 19-45 years) took part in the study. Of these, 13 were nonatopic nonasthmatic subjects (control subjects), and 15 were subjects with atopic mild asthma; there were no significant differences in the age and sex ratios. Atopy was confirmed by positive skin prick reactions (wheals with a mean diameter of >3 mm with associated flare and itching in the absence of any reaction to the negative control) to house dust mite
Results
The cells reached confluence after 2 to 3 weeks in culture and demonstrated typical polygonal morphology, which is characteristic of epithelial cells. The epithelial nature of the cells was confirmed by positive staining of the cells for cytokeratin. Staining with specific mAbs against contaminating cell types, including fibroblasts, muscle cells, endothelial cells, macrophages, T and B lymphocytes, mast cells, eosinophils, and neutrophils did not show any indication of these cells.
Discussion
In these studies we have confirmed our previous findings that bronchial epithelial cells can be grown as confluent explant cultures from biopsy specimens of well-characterized atopic patients with mild asthma and nonatopic nonasthmatic subjects.16 To our knowledge, these studies are the first of their kind and demonstrate that HBECs of both nonasthmatic and asthmatic subjects constitutively release proinflammatory mediators and that exposure to gaseous pollutants, such as O3 and NO2, lead to a
Acknowledgements
We thank Ms Janice Thomas (Computer Services Department, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, UK) for her advice on the statistical analysis of the data.
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Cited by (0)
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Supported by the National Asthma Campaign, UK. Dr Hasan Bayram was supported by the University of Dicle, Turkey.
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Reprint requests: Hasan Bayram, MD, PhD, Department of Respiratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Dicle, Diyarbakır, 21280, Turkey.