Increased MCP-1, RANTES, and MIP-1α in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of allergic asthmatic patients

Rafeul Alam, John York, Michael Boyars, Susan Stafford, J A Grant, Jana Lee, Patricia Forsythe, Tommy Sim, Nobuo Ida

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

283 Scopus citations

Abstract

Chemokines are cytokines that induce chemotaxis of inflammatory cells. We studied the presence of chemokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) obtained from nine allergic asthmatic patients and six nonsmoking normal individuals. The cells were pelleted, and ribonucleic acid (RNA) was extracted by using RNAzol B. BALF was assayed for monocyte chemoattractrant protein-1 (MCP-1), regulated upon activation in normal T cells, expressed, probably secreted (RANTES), macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The levels of MCP-1, RANTES, and MIP-1α were significantly higher in the asthma patients than in the control subjects (p < 0.04). The concentrations of RANTES and MCP-1 correlated with the lymphocyte count in the BAL specimens (r = 0.61 and 0.68, respectively). BALF showed eosinophil chemotactic activity in vitro that was blocked by anti-RANTES and anti-MCP-3 antibodies. The total cellular RNA was reverse-transcribed and the complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) was amplified with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for MCP- 1, MCP-3, RANTES, MIP-1α, IL-8, and β-actin. We found that messenger ribonucleic acids (mRNAs) for MCP-1, MCP-3, RANTES, MIP-1α, and IL-8 were produced by BAL cells from most asthmatic and normal subjects. We conclude that chemokines are produced in the airways, and that an increased recovery of MCP-1, RANTES, and MIP-1α is observed in allergic asthmatic patients.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1398-1404
Number of pages7
JournalAmerican Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
Volume153
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1996

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
  • Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine

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