Airway contraction and cytokine release in isolated rat lungs induced by wear particles from the road and tire interface and road vehicle brakes.

The dominant road traffic particle sources are wear particles from the road and tire interface, and from vehicle brake pads. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of road and brake wear particles on pulmonary function and biomarkers in isolated perfused rat lungs. Particles were sampled from the studded tire wear of three road pavements containing different rock materials in a road simulator; and from the wear of two brake pad materials using a pin-on-disk machine. Isolated rat lungs inhaled the coarse and fine fractions of the sampled particles resulting in an estimated total particle lung dose of 50 µg. The tidal volume (TV) was measured during the particle exposure and the following 50 min. Perfusate and BALF were analyzed for the cytokines TNF, CXCL1 and CCL3. The TV of lungs exposed to rock materials was significantly reduced after 25 min of exposure compared to the controls, for quartzite already after 4 min. The particles of the heavy-duty brake pads had no effect on the TV. Brake particles resulted in a significant elevation of CXCL1 in the perfusate. Brake particles showed significant elevations of all three measured cytokines, and quartzite showed a significant elevation of TNF in BALF. The study shows that the toxic effect on lungs exposed to airborne particles can be investigated using measurements of tidal volume. Furthermore, the study shows that the choice of rock material in road pavements has the potential to affect the toxicity of road wear PM10.

Clara cell 10-KDA protein inhibits endotoxin-induced airway contraction in isolated perfused rat lungs.

Clara cell 10-kDa protein (CC10) is a major component of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and is suggested to be a natural regulator of airway inflammation, possibly through its effects on the proinflammatory enzyme(s), phospholipase A2. We examined the effect of recombinant human (rh) CC10 on endotoxin-induced airway contraction and cytokine release in isolated perfused rat lungs. We found that rhCC10 added to the lung perfusate abolished the endotoxin-induced airway contraction, and that it inhibited both the release of interleukin-1 beta and interleukin-6 into the lung perfusate and the release of tumor necrosis factor-alpha into the pulmonary lavage fluid. By contrast, the levels of interferon-gamma were unaffected by CC10 administration. Rutin, a phospholipase A2 inhibitor, and N omega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, also attenuated the contraction induced by endotoxin. These findings demonstrate that rhCC10 inhibits endotoxin-induced airway contraction and the release of proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha) in isolated perfused rat lungs. The results also indicate that phospholipase A2 and nitric oxide are involved in the airway contraction in this model, possibly through their influence on the production of eicosanoids.