An increase in the bulk of the airway smooth muscle is a characteristic of asthma. Much of the research investigating the mechanisms of this increase in muscle has focused on mediators that are mitogenic for smooth muscle, while relatively few studies have focused on mediators inhibiting mitogenesis. In this study we have examined the effects of two mediators proposed as regulators of smooth muscle proliferation, namely heparin and prostaglandin (PG) E2, on human airway smooth muscle cells in culture stimulated with 1, 2.5, 5, and 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) and platelet-derived growth factor AB (PDGF), 50 ng/ml. PGE2 had a biphasic effect on DNA synthesis in the presence of 1% FBS, with 10(-6) M causing inhibition and 10(-7) M causing an increase in DNA synthesis. PGE2 caused inhibition of DNA synthesis in the presence of 2.5, 5, and 10% FBS. Heparin (10 and 100 U/ml) caused an inhibition of DNA synthesis induced by 1% FBS, while 100 U/ml inhibited DNA synthesis induced by 5 and 10% FBS. PGE2 (10(-8), 10(-7), and 10(-6) M) inhibited the DNA synthesis induced by PDGF, while heparin (1, 10, and 100 U/ml) had no effect. These results indicate that both PGE2 and heparin may have a role in the control of human airway smooth muscle cell growth.

No abstract

Formylmethionylleucylphenylalanine (FMLP) is a synthetic analogue of bacterial chemotactic factors. We studied the contraction of human airway tissue in vitro by FMLP. FMLP induced a concentration-dependent contraction of all bronchial spiral strips studied (n = 45). The maximum tension generated in response to FMLP was 86.6 +/- 7.0% (SE) of the maximum response to histamine. The contraction was not reduced by the histamine H1-receptor antagonist pyrilamine, the cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase inhibitors indomethacin and BW755C, the muscarinic antagonist atropine, or capsaicin which depletes stores of substance P. The concentration-response curve was shifted to the right by the polypeptide antagonist N-t-BOC-phenylalanylleucylphenylalanylleucylphenylalanine and the leukotriene antagonist FPL 55712. When 2 successive FMLP concentration-response curves were performed the maximum response was significantly reduced from 114.8 +/- 9.1% of the histamine maximum to 39.3 +/- 6.1%. The contraction of human airways in vitro by an agent that is structurally and functionally similar to chemotactic peptides released from bacteria may have important implications in airway disease.

Despite the widespread use of corticosteroids in asthma therapy, little is known of the effects of corticosteroids on cell surface markers involved in T lymphocyte activation and adhesion. We used flow cytometry to analyze the effects of 1, 10, and 100 nM dexamethasone on expression of markers on resting and phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated peripheral blood CD4+ T lymphocytes. Expression of the leukocyte common antigen CD45 was significantly (P = 0.016, n = 3) increased from an average mean fluorescence intensity of 215.8 [95% confidence intervals (CI): 100.5, 463.5] on cells from unstimulated cultures to 334.2 (CI: 167.9, 663.7) on cells from PHA-stimulated cultures after 70-h incubation. At the same time, the percentage of cells also expressing the CD45RO isoform, a marker of memory T lymphocytes, increased significantly (P = 0.0006, n = 3) from 54.4 +/- 1.3% (unstimulated) to 92.8 +/- 0.6% (stimulated). Dexamethasone had no significant effect on expression of CD45 or CD45RO, including the observed changes. Dexamethasone also did not affect expression of the beta 1-integrin VLA-4. These results suggest that corticosteroids do not modulate the cell surface expression of these molecules involved in CD4+ T lymphocyte activation, adhesion, and recirculation.

In recent years, platelet-activating factor (PAF) has been strongly implicated as a mediator involved in asthma. In non-asthmatic subjects, aerosolized PAF has been shown to cause bronchoconstriction. The mechanism of this in vivo effect is unknown. We have previously shown that PAF causes a contraction of human isolated bronchus that varies in magnitude between patients, and within tissues from the same patient. To examine the possibility that this variability in contraction was secondary to PAF-induced release of mediators from inflammatory or epithelial cells within the tissue, we examined the relationship between contractile responses to PAF and the presence of inflammatory or epithelial cells. We studied eight tissues from five patients. Of the eight tissues, four contracted, whilst four failed to contract, to PAF (7 x 10(-7) M). After the contractile response to PAF had been assessed by observing changes in isometric tone in vitro, bronchial rings were examined histologically to enable the quantification of inflammatory cell numbers and intact epithelium. No significant correlation was observed between the magnitude of contractions and numbers of eosinophils, neutrophils, lymphocytes, plasma cells, total cells or percentage intact epithelium. We conclude that it is unlikely that the variability in response to PAF in human isolated airways is related to the variability in inflammatory cell numbers or to the presence of epithelium. Thus, the contraction induced by PAF is probably not mediated via the release of a secondary mediator from the particular cells examined in this study.