A wealth of evidence supports increased NO (NO ⅐ ) in asthma, but its roles are unknown. To investigate how NO participates in inflammatory airway events in asthma, we measured NO ⅐ and NO ⅐ chemical reaction products [nitrite, nitrate, S-nitrosothiols (SNO), and nitrotyrosine] before, immediately and 48 h after bronchoscopic antigen (Ag) challenge of the peripheral airways in atopic asthmatic individuals and nonatopic healthy controls. Strikingly, NO 3 ؊ was the only NO ⅐ derivative to increase during the immediate reactive oxygen species ͉ reactive nitrogen species ͉ asthma ͉ allergy T he exhaled air of asthmatic individuals contains higher levels of NO ⅐ than found in exhalate of healthy nonsmoking individuals (1-7). The role of NO ⅐ in asthma is unclear, but studies suggest that NO ⅐ relaxes bronchial smooth muscle, leading to bronchodilatation, inhibits proinflammatory signaling events (8, 9), or conversely contributes to airway inflammation and injury through formation of toxic reactive nitrogen species (RNS) (10). Ultimately, the functional role of NO ⅐ , as any molecule, will depend on both its concentration and association with other biomolecules and proteins (11). In this context, NO ⅐ is a highly reactive molecule, and exhaled NO ⅐ likely represents only a fraction of the total NO ⅐ in the lung. NO ⅐ reacts with oxygen or reactive oxygen species (ROS) to form oxidation products, such as NO 2 Ϫ , NO 3 Ϫ , and RNS (8,(10)(11)(12)(13). NO ⅐ or RNS may lead to nitration of tyrosine residues in proteins or nitrosylation of biologic constituents to form S-nitrosothiols (SNO); 100% of NO ⅐ reaction products are partitioned in the liquid phase of the lung (8,10,11,13). Notably, the temporal sequence of change in NO ⅐ and its downstream reaction products within airways during an asthmatic attack is unknown.Airway antigen (Ag) challenge has been used in atopic individuals as an experimental model to study mechanisms͞medi-ators that lead to asthmatic responses and airway inflammation (14-19). Exposure of asthmatic individuals to appropriate Ag results in both an immediate asthmatic response occurring within minutes and a similar but prolonged late response after many hours. The immediate response has been associated with release of bronchoconstrictor mediators and ROS, and the late response with thickening of the airway mucosa by edema and inflammatory cell influx (14-19). To investigate the functional role of NO ⅐ in the asthmatic response, we measured NO ⅐ generation and downstream product formation (nitrite, nitrate, SNO, and nitrotyrosine) before, immediately and 48 h after bronchoscopic Ag challenge of the peripheral airways in atopic asthmatic individuals and nonatopic healthy controls. The results reveal clear differences in NO ⅐ chemical reactions in the early and late responses to Ag challenge in asthmatic airways, which support distinct functions for NO ⅐ in asthmatic inflammatory events during the immediate and late phase of an asthma attack.
MethodsStudy Population. All individuals were screened by h...