[Acute eosinophilic pneumonia induced by cigarette smoking: positive lymphocyte stimulation test of a cigarette extract].

A 21-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with high fever, general fatigue and dyspnea. Chest radiography on admission showed diffuse bilateral infiltrate shadows with Kerley's B lines, and a CT scan showed patches of infiltrates with thickened interlobular septa in both lungs. Examination of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and the clinical course led to a diagnosis of acute eosinophilic pneumonia. The patient improved without steroid therapy. We suspected that the disease was related to smoking because the patient had started smoking seven days before the onset of the symptoms. Because a lymphocyte stimulation test gave a positive reaction to a cigarette extract, a challenge test was done. After this, the patient had fever and hypoxemia. These findings suggest that cigarette smoking induces acute eosinophilic pneumonia.

Cytotoxic effect of herbal medicine sho-saiko-to on human lung-cancer cell-lines in-vitro.

The cytotoxic effect of a herbal medicine Shosaiko-to (TJ-9) was examined by the MTT assay on 7 human lung cancer cell lines (4 non-small cell carcinomas, 3 small cell carcinomas) and on 5 hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines. TJ-9 showed a dose-dependent cytotoxicity in all cell lines except one (SBC-5). Of the seven herbs in TJ-9, Scutellaria root showed the strongest cytotoxicity followed by the Glycyrrhiza root. Among baicalin, baicalein and wogonin from the Scutellaria root, cytotoxicity was observed only with baicalin. The SBC-5 cell line which was resistant to TJ-9 showed a lesser sensitivity to both Scutellaria root and baicalin. TJ-9 showed almost equal cytotoxicity in cisplatin (CDDP)-sensitive PC-10 and CDDP-resistant SBC-4 cell lines, and in H69 and H69/CDDP cell lines. TJ-9, Scutellaria root and baicalin were all less cytotoxic for human lymphocytes and bone marrow cells than for a lung cancer cell line of SBC-4. These results suggest that TJ-9 and its components may be useful anticancer agents for the treatment of lung cancer.