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Equine recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) has been used as a naturally occurring model of human asthma. However, it is unknown whether there is an early-phase response in RAO. The aim of this study was to determine whether exposure to organic dust induces immediate changes in lung function in RAO-affected horses, which could be mediated by airway mast cells. Six RAO-affected horses in remission and six control horses were challenged with hay-straw dust suspension by nebulization. Total respiratory resistance at 1 Hz, measured by forced oscillation, was increased from 0.62 ± 0.09 cmH2O·l−1·s (mean ± SE) to 1.23 ± 0.20 cmH2O·l−1·s 15 min after nebulization in control horses ( P = 0.023) but did not change significantly in the RAO group. Total respiratory reactance at 1 Hz ( P = 0.005) was significantly lower in the control horses (−0.77 ± 0.07 cmH2O·l−1·s) than in the RAO group (−0.49 ± 0.04 cmH2O·l−1·s) 15 min after nebulization. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) histamine concentration was significantly elevated 10 and 20 min postnebulization in control horses but not in RAO horses. Minimum reactance at 1 Hz in the early postnebulization period significantly correlated with both prechallenge BALF mast cell numbers ( r = −0.65, P = 0.02) and peak BALF histamine concentration postnebulization ( r = −0.61, P = 0.04). In conclusion, RAO horses, unlike human asthmatic patients, do not exhibit an early-phase response. However, healthy control horses do demonstrate a mild but significant early (

The production of tissue kallikrein and the short-circuit current (SCC) response in the human colonic epithelial cell line T84 to bradykinin have been studied. These cells produce true tissue kallikrein and secrete it into the growth medium, and addition of bradykinin results in a small increase in SCC. After growth of T84 cells as a xenograft in athymic (nude) mice (NuT84), however, the cellular concentration of the enzyme increases 38-fold, and the maximal change in SCC (delta SCC) induced by bradykinin increases 35-fold. The SCC response to prostaglandin E1 is not changed, and the response to forskolin increases eightfold. The bradykinin-induced delta SCC was inhibited by piretanide, suggesting that a secretory movement of chloride was responsible for the change, and the effect was attenuated by an antagonist to kinin receptors. We conclude that both the production of true tissue kallikrein and the chloride secretory response to bradykinin can be regulated in T84 cells by changes in the cell environment.

Anaphylactic reactions can be elicited by beta-lactoglobulin (beta LG) in the isolated colonic and ileal mucosae of guinea pigs fed cow milk. We have shown that these tissues respond to antigen challenge with a rapid rise in short-circuit current (SCC) due to net chloride secretion in the colon and less well-characterized ion movements in the ileum. Here, tissues were characterized morphologically at or near the peak of the SCC response 2 min after antigen addition. These sensitized preparations, or naive tissues passively sensitized with immune sera and challenged with beta LG, showed numerous structural alterations that correlated significantly with the change in SCC. In the ileum, these changes included compound exocytosis of mucous granules from goblet cells of crypts but not of villi and a decrease in the intercellular space of the crypts. In contrast, colonic goblet cells of both crypts and luminal surface showed no evidence of secretion, but crypt architecture was reproducibly and characteristically altered. Thus antigen challenge of intestinal mucosa results in temporally related but diverse changes in morphology and ion transport.