Faculty Bibliography

Protein extravasation and airway conductance (SGaw) were examined in awake guinea pigs exposed to inhaled endotoxin or saline for three hours. A significant increase in protein extravasation (as estimated by the leakage of protein bound Evans blue dye) was seen in the conducting airways of endotoxin exposed animals compared with saline exposed animals. Mean dye extravasation was significantly increased by one to threefold in the mainstem and hilar bronchi of endotoxin exposed animals. These changes in extravasation were accompanied by decrements in pulmonary function and by an influx of polymorphonuclear leucocytes into the airway wall. The SGaw decreased significantly by 60-90 minutes into exposure to endotoxin and had decreased by 22% and 34% at the end of exposure in the low and high dose endotoxin groups, respectively. Similar findings were obtained in animals exposed to cotton dust. Contrary to studies suggesting that platelet activating factor (PAF) is involved in the systemic and peripheral lung effects of endotoxin, pretreatment with the PAF antagonist WEB2086 did not prevent the conducting airway injury produced by inhaled endotoxin

The potential health effects of a raw shale oil were evaluated in a 90-day inhalation study in Fischer 344 rats. Groups of 15 male and 15 female rats were exposed 6 hr/day, 5 days/week for 13 weeks to aerosol concentrations of 0, 56, 120, or 492 mg/m3. In the high-dose group, 10 males and 7 females died prior to the termination of the study, most within the first 5 weeks of the experiment. A dose-dependent suppression in weight gain was seen in all of the shale oil-exposed groups. The failure to gain weight was associated with a variety of clinicopathologic abnormalities, including a dose-related decrease in red and white blood cells, with lowered plasma protein levels and increased serum alkaline phosphatase, and with total bilirubin levels in males. The exposure of the test animals to aerosolized raw shale oil was also associated with inflammatory and hyperplastic lesions in the lungs and upper respiratory tract, atrophy of the thymus and thymic-dependent portions of the peripheral lymphoid system, and bone marrow. These changes demonstrate that inhalation of raw shale oil aerosol can produce major organ toxicity similar to that found after exposure to other unrefined oil products

We evaluated the importance of pH, titratable acidity, and specific chemical composition in acid aerosol-induced bronchoconstriction in 8 asthmatic subjects. We administered aerosols of HCl and H2SO4 at pH 2.0 in an unbuffered state and buffered with glycine. The buffered acids were given in order of increasing titratable acidity (defined as the number of ml of 1 N NaOH required to neutralize 100 ml of acid solution to pH 7.0). Each set of buffered or unbuffered acid aerosols was given on a separate day and each aerosol was inhaled through a mouthpiece during 3 min of tidal breathing. Bronchoconstriction was assessed by measurement of specific airway resistance (SRaw) before and after inhalation of each aerosol. SRaw increased by more than 50% above baseline in 1 of 8 subjects after inhalation of unbuffered HCl and in no subjects after inhalation of unbuffered H2SO4, even at pH 2.0. In contrast, SRaw increased by greater than 50% in all 8 subjects after inhalation of HCl and glycine at pH 2.0 and 7 of 8 subjects after inhalation of H2SO4 and glycine at pH 2.0. The mean titratable acidity required to increase SRaw by 50% above baseline was calculated for each challenge by linear interpolation; these values for H2SO4 and glycine (5.1 ml of 1 N NaOH) and HCl and glycine (2.2 ml of 1 N NaOH) were slightly, but significantly, different (p = 0.01) and were considerably higher than the titratable acidity of the unbuffered acids at pH 2 (1.0 ml of 1 N NaOH).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The airway edema that develops in guinea pigs after exposure to toluene diisocyanate (TDI) requires the presence of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). To determine whether this airway edema is mediated by the release of hydrogen peroxide from PMN, we treated animals intravenously with catalase bound to polyethylene glycol and examined the extravasation of Evans blue dye into the tracheal wall after exposure to air or 3 ppm TDI for 1 h. Catalase (25,000, 100,000, and 300,000 IU/kg) caused a dose-dependent inhibition of the TDI-induced increase in dye extravasation. However, treatment with catalase, inactivated at the peroxide binding site with 3-aminotriazole, inhibited dye extravasation after exposure to TDI as effectively as the equimolar 100,000 IU/kg dose of active catalase. Injection of polyethylene glycol alone was without effect. Dose-dependent decreases in extravascular migration of PMN and in circulating PMN also were noted after catalase treatment. These results suggest that the catalase preparations used in these studies inhibited the PMN-dependent airway edema by an effect other than hydrogen peroxide scavenging. Examination of this and other commercially available catalase preparations revealed trace concentrations of endotoxin at levels that could be responsible for the observed effects on PMN function. Treatment of animals with doses of Escherichia coli endotoxin similar to those inadvertantly administered to the catalase-treated groups (0.1 ng/kg to 100 ng/kg, intravenously) inhibited TDI-induced extravasation of Evans blue dye in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that contaminating endotoxin may contribute to some of the protective effects of preparations of catalase observed in previous studies of vascular permeability

Airway permeability was studied in groups of male guinea pigs at 2, 8, and 24 h after a 1-h exposure to 1 ppm ozone or at 2 h after a 1-h exposure to filtered air (control). Intratracheal administration of 2 mg horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was followed by blood sampling at 5-min intervals up to 30 min. The rate of appearance of HRP in plasma was significantly higher at 2 and 8 h after ozone exposure than that found in animals examined 2 h after air exposure or 24 h after ozone exposure. A dose of 0.12 mg/kg of subcutaneous histamine given after the 15 min blood sample significantly increased the already elevated permeability seen at 2 h post ozone, but had no effect on animals exposed to filtered air 2 h earlier or to ozone 24 h earlier. No difference was seen in the amount of subcutaneous radiolabeled histamine in the lungs of animals exposed 2 h earlier either to air or to ozone. These data indicate that a short-term exposure to ozone produced a reversible increase in respiratory epithelial permeability to HRP in guinea pigs. The potentiation of this increased permeability by histamine may be another manifestation of ozone-induced hyperreactivity.

We examined the changes in airway responsiveness to increasing doses of an acetylcholine aerosol in anesthetized and ventilated guinea pigs 2, 6, or 24 h after exposure to 2 ppm toluene diisocyanate (TDI) or 2 h after exposure to air or 1 ppm TDI. Pulmonary resistance (RL) after the animals inhaled a buffered saline aerosol was used as baseline and was similar for air and TDI groups. The concentration of acetylcholine calculated to cause a 200% increase in RL was significantly lower for animals studied at 2 h (0.68%) or at 6 h (0.77%), but not at 24 h (2.39%), after TDI than for air animals (3.07%). The increase in airway responsiveness in the TDI-exposed animals was associated with histologic changes in the trachea and intrapulmonary airways. Exposure to 2 ppm TDI caused a patchy loss of cilia, shedding of epithelial cells into the airway lumen, and an influx of inflammatory cells into the trachea and other airways. In the lamina propria of the trachea, the concentration of extravascular polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) was 13- to 26-fold greater in animals studied 2 or 6 h after exposure to 2 ppm TDI or at 2 h after 1 ppm TDI than in animals exposed to air. The concentration of PMN in the epithelium was significantly increased only in animals examined 2 h after 2 ppm TDI. Exposure to TDI also caused an influx of eosinophils into the tracheal mucosa. This influx occurred later and was more persistent than the influx of PMN. These results indicate that a single exposure to TDI can cause an increase in airway responsiveness that is associated with epithelial injury and acute airway inflammation