Resp Res
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Cigarette smoke mediated oxidative stress and inflammatory events in the airway and alveolar epithelium are important processes in the pathogenesis of smoking related pulmonary diseases. Previously, individual cell lines were used to assess the oxidative and proinflammatory effects of cigarette smoke with confounding results. In this study, a panel of human and rodent transformed epithelial cell lines were used to determine the effects of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on oxidative stress markers, cell toxicity and proinflammatory cytokine release and compared the effects with that of primary human small airway epithelial cells (SAEC). ⋯ This study suggests that primary, but not transformed, lung epithelial cells are an appropriate model to study the inflammatory mechanisms in response to cigarette smoke.
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The acid sensitive ion channels TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor-1) and ASIC3 (acid sensing ion channel-3) respond to tissue acidification in the range that occurs during painful conditions such as inflammation and ischemia. Here, we investigated to which extent they are expressed by rat dorsal root ganglion neurons projecting to lung and pleura, respectively. ⋯ Rat pleural and pulmonary spinal afferents express at least two different acid-sensitive channels that make them suitable to monitor tissue acidification. Patterns of co-expression and structural markers define neuronal subgroups that can be inferred to subserve different functions and may initiate specific reflex responses. The higher prevalence of TRPV1+/ASIC3- neurons among pleural afferents probably reflects the high sensitivity of the parietal pleura to painful stimuli.