STUDIES ON THE BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF OZONE .4. CYTOKINE PRODUCTION AND GLUTATHIONE LEVELS IN HUMAN ERYTHROCYTES

We have investigated the effect of various concentrations of ozone on human blood aiming to correlate the production of cytokines with deple tion of reduced glutathione and hemolysis. As erythrocytes constitute the bulk of blood cells and represent the main target of ozone they ha ve been taken as a useful marker of its oxidative activity. It appears that a transient exposure (30 sec) of blood of up to 78 mu g ozone pe r ml of blood does not depress the production of cytokines even though there is a slight increase of hemolysis and a small decrease of intra cellular reduced glutathione. In contrast either a constant (up to 30 sec) exposure to an ozone flux or a high ozone concentration (108 mu g /ml) markedly decreases reduced glutathione levels and depresses cytok ine production.