Bronchial biopsies have made possible the detailed study of the pathol
ogy of the airways of humans with respiratory disease. Much data has b
een accumulated on asthmatics or normal controls but much less is know
n about chronic bronchitics. The aim of this study was to characterize
the cellular and cytokine pattern seen in chronic bronchitics and to
compare these with control and asthmatic subjects. The patients were a
lso characterized clinically. In this study, immunocytochemistry on cr
yostat sections from bronchial biopsies were used to determine the lev
el of inflammatory cells and cells of the immune system as well as the
pattern of cytokines. This study revealed a distinct cellular and cyt
okine pattern for each of the three different patient groups, although
the diversity of the cytokines analysed was limited by the size of th
e biopsies. In the inflammatory infiltrate of patients with asthma, CD
4+ T-cells and eosinophils were the most prominent cell types discerne
d. All of the expected cytokines such as IL-1, TNF-alpha, IL-4, IL-5 a
nd IFN-gamma were found. In contrast, the emphasis in chronic bronchit
ic patients was quite different. The predominant cell types were macro
phages, neutrophils, mast cells and CD8+ T-cells, but eosinophils were
also abundant. In addition, IL-4 and TNF-alpha were the only cytokine
s present of those tested.