American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · May 1997
Cigarette smoke induces interleukin-8 release from human bronchial epithelial cells.
Cigarette smoking causes the development of chronic bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We hypothesized that exposure to cigarette smoke might initiate release of inflammatory mediators by bronchial epithelial cells. To evaluate this, the effect of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on IL-8 release from cultured human bronchial epithelial cells was examined. ⋯ IL-8 concentration was greater in the proximal, bronchial samples than in distal, alveolar samples, and IL-8 in BAL from smokers was higher than in BAL from nonsmokers. There was a significant correlation between IL-8 concentration and neutrophil count in bronchial samples of BAL fluid. These data support the hypothesis that exposure to cigarette smoke may induce bronchial epithelial cells to release IL-8 and that this may contribute to airway inflammation in smokers.