H. Koto et al., AN IMPORTANT ROLE OF TACHYKININS IN OZONE-INDUCED AIRWAY HYPERRESPONSIVENESS, American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 151(6), 1995, pp. 1763-1769
Citations number
29
Categorie Soggetti
Emergency Medicine & Critical Care","Respiratory System
We investigated the role of tachykinins in ozone-induced airway hyperr
esponsiveness (AHR) in guinea pigs. Airway responsiveness was assessed
by determining the provocative concentration (PC200) of a histamine a
erosol. Ozone exposure (3.0 ppm for 2 h) caused significant AHR. For v
ehicle-pretreated animals, the geometric mean pre- and post-ozone PC20
0 values were 0.87 mg/ml (GSEM 1.33) and 0.11 mg/ml (GSEM 1.17), respe
ctively. Tachykinin depletion by capsaicin (50 mg/kg) prevented this A
HR, whereas it did not alter pre-ozone airway responsiveness. The PC20
0 was 0.36 mg/kg (GSEM 1.64) before ozone and 0.24 mg/kg (GSEM 1.72) a
fter ozone for this group. Ozone also caused a significant increase in
neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) compared with BALF
from a normal control group (1.71 +/- 0.69 versus 0.07 +/- 0.02 x 10(
5)/ml, respectively). Capsaicin pretreatment attenuated this neutrophi
l influx(0.23 +/- 0.16 x 10(5)/ml). Morphometric assessment revealed e
dema of the bronchiolar wall after ozone exposure, which was not obser
ved in the capsaicin group. BAL and morphometry revealed that the degr
ee of ozone-induced epithelial desquamation was similar in both groups
. These results suggest that tachykinins may be responsible for ozone-
induced AHR, possibly via neurogenic inflammation.