Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Vol 153, No. 1, Jan 1996, 136-140.
Ragweed antigen causes interleukin-8 production in sensitized dog trachea
T Kaneko, PR Massion, M Hara and JA Nadel
Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco 94143-0130, USA.
Antigen challenge in allergic subjects and in sensitized animals causes
recruitment of neutrophils as well as eosinophils into the airways. In this
study, we asked whether interleukin-8 (IL-8) is involved in the recruitment
of neutrophils into the airways after antigen challenge. We administered
ragweed antigen to an isolated, superfused tracheal segment of
ragweed-sensitized dogs. Local tracheal instillation of the antigen caused
an increase in IL-8 concentration and increases in both the number of
recruited neutrophils and myeloperoxidase activity (one indicator of
neutrophil activation in the recruited cells). The increase in IL-8
concentration was observed earlier than both the neutrophil recruitment and
the increase in myeloperoxidase activity in the tracheal superfusate.
Superfusate removed from the trachea 8 h after antigen challenge showed
marked neutrophil chemotactic activity in a microchemotaxis chamber, and
this activity was inhibited (mean, 75.6%) by a blocking antibody to dog
IL-8. We conclude that ragweed antigen causes neutrophil recruitment into
the airways at least in part because of IL-8 production.
