Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Vol 151, No. 1, 01 1995, 145-150.
Decreased tobacco-glycoprotein-induced lymphocyte proliferation in vitro in pulmonary eosinophilic granuloma
LH Youkeles, JN Grizzanti, Z Liao, CJ Chang and DL Rosenstreich
Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461.
Pulmonary eosinophilic granuloma is a disorder caused by localized
collections of proliferating histiocytes in the lung. Little is known about
its etiology except that the majority (58 to 97%) of patients are current
or ex-smokers, making the potential etiologic role of tobacco products an
important area for research. Tobacco glycoprotein (TGP) is a potent
immunostimulator that has been isolated from cigarette smoke. TGP-specific
lymphocyte proliferation, and cytokine production in vitro, were measured
in three patients with pulmonary eosinophilic granuloma in remission and in
three closely matched normal subjects with similar smoking histories. One
patient with eosinophilic granuloma of bone and a matched control subject
were also studied. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cultured with
TGP, the recall antigen streptokinase (SK), and the mitogen concanavalin A
(Con A). All three of the patients with pulmonary eosinophilic granuloma
exhibited significant decreases in lymphocyte stimulation to TGP, despite
normal responses to SK and Con A. In contrast, the response of the patient
with eosinophilic granuloma of bone was higher than her matched control.
The mean responses of the patients with pulmonary eosinophilic granuloma to
TGP was significantly lower than the mean of nondiseased smokers or of
normal nonsmokers. Twenty-four-hour culture supernatants were collected and
assayed for cytokine levels (IL-1, IL-2, and IL-6). TGP-stimulated IL-2
production was significantly lower in the patients with pulmonary
eosinophilic granuloma than in the normal subjects, confirming the reduced
T-cell proliferative response.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
