Preparation of Specific Compartments of the Lungs for Pathologic and Biochemical Analysis of Toxicologic Responses.

This unit focuses on protocols for assessing microenvironment-specific responses in the thoracic lung tissues. Aspects of the entire respiratory system serve as potential targets for candidate toxicants, but each candidate toxicant may impact distinct sites due to differential distribution of either the toxicant or the target cells. Within the conducting airways, the composition of resident cell populations and the metabolic capabilities of the cell populations vary greatly. Thus, studies of this region of the lung require unique, site-selective methods to clearly define the toxic response. Without site-specific sampling, as described in this chapter, the experimental limit of detection for toxicant effects in conducting airways is weakened because differences unrelated to treatment, but related to location, may dominate the response. The protocols included here allow assessment of toxicological responses in the tracheobronchial airways and the gas exchange area of the lung, with specific application to laboratory mammals. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Matrix metalloproteinase-7 coordinates airway epithelial injury response and differentiation of ciliated cells.

Matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP7) expression is quickly up-regulated after injury, and functions to regulate wound repair and various mucosal immune processes. We evaluated the global transcriptional response of airway epithelial cells from wild-type and Mmp7-null mice cultured at an air-liquid interface. The analysis of differentially expressed genes between genotypes after injury revealed an enrichment of functional categories associated with inflammation, cilia, and differentiation. Because these analyses suggested that MMP7 regulated ciliated cell formation, we evaluated the recovery of the airway epithelium in wild-type and Mmp7-null mice in vivo after naphthalene injury, which revealed augmented ciliated cell formation in the absence of MMP7. Moreover, in vitro studies evaluating cell differentiation in air-liquid interface cultures also showed faster ciliated cell production under Mmp7-null conditions compared with wild-type conditions. These studies identified a new role for MMP7 in attenuating ciliated cell differentiation during wound repair.

Ozone exposure during the early postnatal period alters the timing and pattern of alveolar growth and development in nonhuman primates.

Exposure to oxidant air pollutants in early childhood, with ozone as the key oxidant, has been linked to significant decrements in pulmonary function in young adults and exacerbation of airway remodeling in asthma. Development of lung parenchyma in rhesus monkeys is rapid during the first 2 years of life (comparable to the first 6 years in humans). Our hypothesis is that ozone inhalation during infancy alters alveolar morphogenesis. We exposed infant rhesus monkeys biweekly to 5, 8 hr/day, cycles of 0.5 ppm ozone with or without house dust mite allergen from 1 to 3 or 1 to 6 months of age. Monkeys were necropsied at 3 and 6 months of age. A morphometric approach was used to quantify changes in alveolar volume and number, the distribution of alveolar size, and capillary surface density per alveolar septa. Quantitative real time PCR was used to measure the relative difference in gene expression over time. Monkeys exposed to ozone alone or ozone combined with allergen had statistically larger alveoli that were less in number at 3 months of age. Alveolar capillary surface density was also decreased in the ozone exposed groups at 3 months of age. At 6 months of age, the alveolar number was similar between treatment groups and was associated with a significant rise in alveolar number from 3 to 6 months of age in the ozone exposed groups. This increase in alveolar number was not associated with any significant increase in microvascular growth as measured by morphometry or changes in angiogenic gene expression. Inhalation of ozone during infancy alters the appearance and timing of alveolar growth and maturation. Understanding the mechanism involved with this altered alveolar growth may provide insight into the parenchymal injury and repair process that is involved with chronic lung diseases such as severe asthma and COPD.

Satratoxin-G from the black mold Stachybotrys chartarum induces rhinitis and apoptosis of olfactory sensory neurons in the nasal airways of rhesus monkeys.

Satratoxin-G (SG) is a trichothecene mycotoxin of Stachybotrys chartarum, the black mold suggested to contribute etiologically to illnesses associated with water-damaged buildings. We have reported that intranasal exposure to SG evokes apoptosis of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) and acute inflammation in the nose and brain of laboratory mice. To further assess the potential human risk of nasal airway injury and neurotoxicity, we developed a model of SG exposure in monkeys, whose nasal airways more closely resemble those of humans. Adult, male rhesus macaques received a single intranasal instillation of 20 µg SG (high dose, n = 3), or 5 µg SG daily for four days (repeated low dose, n = 3) in one nasal passage, and saline vehicle in the contralateral nasal passage. Nasal tissues were examined using light and electron microscopy and morphometric analysis. SG induced acute rhinitis, atrophy of the olfactory epithelium (OE), and apoptosis of OSNs in both groups. High-dose and repeated low-dose SG elicited a 13% and 66% reduction in OSN volume density, and a 14-fold and 24-fold increase in apoptotic cells of the OE, respectively. This model provides new insight into the potential risk of nasal airway injury and neurotoxicity caused by exposure to water-damaged buildings.

Persistent rhinitis and epithelial remodeling induced by cyclic ozone exposure in the nasal airways of infant monkeys.

Children chronically exposed to high levels of ozone (O(3)), the principal oxidant pollutant in photochemical smog, are more vulnerable to respiratory illness and infections. The specific factors underlying this differential susceptibility are unknown but may be related to air pollutant-induced nasal alterations during postnatal development that impair the normal physiological functions (e.g., filtration and mucociliary clearance) serving to protect the more distal airways from inhaled xenobiotics. In adult animal models, chronic ozone exposure is associated with adaptations leading to a decrease in airway injury. The purpose of our study was to determine whether cyclic ozone exposure induces persistent morphological and biochemical effects on the developing nasal airways of infant monkeys early in life. Infant (180-day-old) rhesus macaques were exposed to 5 consecutive days of O(3) [0.5 parts per million (ppm), 8 h/day; "1-cycle"] or filtered air (FA) or 11 biweekly cycles of O(3) (FA days 1-9; 0.5 ppm, 8 h/day on days 10-14; "11-cycle"). The left nasal passage was processed for light microscopy and morphometric analysis. Mucosal samples from the right nasal passage were processed for GSH, GSSG, ascorbate (AH(2)), and uric acid (UA) concentration. Eleven-cycle O(3) induced persistent rhinitis, squamous metaplasia, and epithelial hyperplasia in the anterior nasal airways of infant monkeys, resulting in a 39% increase in the numeric density of epithelial cells. Eleven-cycle O(3) also induced a 65% increase in GSH concentrations at this site. The persistence of epithelial hyperplasia was positively correlated with changes in GSH. These results indicate that early life ozone exposure causes persistent nasal epithelial alterations in infant monkeys and provide a potential mechanism for the increased susceptibility to respiratory illness exhibited by children in polluted environments.

Small particles disrupt postnatal airway development.

Increasing numbers of epidemiologic studies associate air pollution exposure in children with decreased lung function development. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of exposure to combustion-generated fine [230 and 212 nm number mean aerodynamic particle diameter (NMAD)] to ultrafine (73 nm NMAD) particles differing in elemental (EC) and organic (OC) carbon content on postnatal airway development in rats. Neonatal Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed from postnatal day 7 through 25, and lung function and airway architecture were evaluated 81 days of age. In a separate group of rats, cell proliferation was examined after a single particle exposure at 7 days of age. Early life exposure to 73 nm high OC/EC particles altered distal airway architecture and resulted in subtle changes in lung mechanics. Early life exposure to 212 nm high OC/EC particles did not alter lung architecture but did alter lung mechanics in a manner suggestive of central airway changes. In contrast, early life exposure to 230 nm low OC/EC particles did not alter lung architecture or mechanics. A single 6-h exposure to 73 nm high OC/EC particle decreased airway cell proliferation, whereas 212 nm high OC/EC particles increased it and 230 nm low OC/EC particles did not. The early life exposure to ultrafine, high OC/EC particles results in persistent alterations in distal airway architecture that is characterized by an initial decrease in airway cell proliferation.

Postnatal development of the lamina reticularis in primate airways.

The basement membrane zone (BMZ) appears as three component layers: the lamina lucida, lamina densa, and lamina reticularis. The laminas lucida and densa are present during all stages of development. The lamina reticularis appears during postnatal development. Collagens I, III, and V form heterogeneous fibers that account for the thickness of the lamina reticularis. Additionally, there are three proteoglycans considered as integral components of the BMZ: perlecan, collagen XVIII, and bamacan. Perlecan is the predominant heparan sulfate proteoglycan in the airway BMZ. It is responsible for many of the functions attributed to the BMZ, in particular, trafficking of growth factors and cytokines between epithelial and mesenchymal cells. Growth factor binding sites on perlecan include FGF-1, FGF-2, FGF-7, FGF-10, PDGF, HGF, HB-EGF, VEGF, and TGF-beta. Growth factors pass through the BMZ when moving between the epithelial and mesenchymal cell layers. They move by rapid reversible binding with sites on both the heparan sulfate chains and core protein of perlecan. In this manner, perlecan regulates movement of growth factors between tissues. Another function of the BMZ is storage and regulation of FGF-2. FGF-2 has been shown to be involved with normal growth and thickening of the BMZ. Thickening of the BMZ is a feature of airway remodeling in asthma. It may have a positive effect by protecting against airway narrowing and air trapping. Conversely, it may have a negative effect by influencing trafficking of growth factors in the epithelial mesenchymal trophic unit. However, currently the significance of BMZ thickening is not known.

Airway mast cells in a rhesus model of childhood allergic airways disease.

Asthma is a leading cause of morbidity in children. Risk factors include chronic exposure to allergens and air pollution. While chronically activated mast cells contribute to the pathophysiology of asthma in part through their proteases such as chymase and tryptase, previous studies of airway mast cell abundance and distribution in asthmatics have been inconsistent. To determine whether repeated episodic exposures to environmental pollutants during postnatal lung development alter airway mast cell abundance and distribution, we exposed infant rhesus monkeys to a known human allergen, house dust mite antigen (HDMA), and/or a known environmental pollutant, ozone (O(3)), and quantitatively compared the abundance of tryptase- or chymase-positive mast cells in three airway levels. Mast cells are resident in multiple compartments of the airway wall in infant rhesus monkeys raised from birth in filtered air. Tryptase- and chymase-positive cells were most abundant in trachea and least in terminal bronchioles. The majority of tryptase-positive and almost all chymase-positive cells were in extracellular matrix and smooth muscle bundles. Chronic exposure to HDMA elevated the abundance of both tryptase- and chymase-positive cells in the trachea and intrapulmonary bronchi. Neither exposure to O(3) nor HDMA + O(3) increased mast cell accumulations in the airway wall. We conclude that during postnatal airway development (1) mast cells are a resident airway cell population even in the absence of toxic air contaminants; (2) aeroallergen exposure alters large airway mast cell distribution and abundance, increasing chymase-positive mast cells; and (3) this response is attenuated by exposure to oxidant air pollutants.

Chronic lung disease in preterm lambs: effect of daily vitamin A treatment on alveolarization.

Neonatal chronic lung disease is characterized by failed formation of alveoli and capillaries, and excessive deposition of matrix elastin, which are linked to lengthy mechanical ventilation (MV) with O(2)-rich gas. Vitamin A supplementation has improved respiratory outcome of premature infants, but there is little information about the structural and molecular manifestations in the lung that occur with vitamin A treatment. We hypothesized that vitamin A supplementation during prolonged MV, without confounding by antenatal steroid treatment, would improve alveolar secondary septation, decrease thickness of the mesenchymal tissue cores between distal air space walls, and increase alveolar capillary growth. We further hypothesized that these structural advancements would be associated with modulated expression of tropoelastin and deposition of matrix elastin, phosphorylated Smad2 (pSmad2), cleaved caspase 3, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), VEGF, VEGF-R2, and midkine in the parenchyma of the immature lung. Eight preterm lambs (125 days' gestation, term approximately 150 days) were managed by MV for 3 wk: four were treated with daily intramuscular Aquasol A (vitamin A), 5,000 IU/kg, starting at birth; four received vehicle alone. Postmortem lung assays included quantitative RT-PCR and in situ hybridization, immunoblot and immunohistochemistry, and morphometry and stereology. Daily vitamin A supplementation increased alveolar secondary septation, decreased thickness of the mesenchymal tissue cores between the distal air space walls, and increased alveolar capillary growth. Associated molecular changes were less tropoelastin mRNA expression, matrix elastin deposition, pSmad2, and PCNA protein localization in the mesenchymal tissue core of the distal air space walls. On the other hand, mRNA expression and protein abundance of VEGF, VEGF-R2, midkine, and cleaved caspase 3 were increased. We conclude that vitamin A treatment partially improves lung development in chronically ventilated preterm neonates by modulating expression of tropoelastin, deposition of elastin, and expression of vascular growth factors.

Airway trefoil factor expression during naphthalene injury and repair.

While the role of trefoil factors (TFF) in the maintenance of epithelial integrity in the gastrointestinal tract is well known, their involvement in wound healing in the conducting airway is less well understood. We defined the pattern of expression of TFF1, TFF2, and TFF3 in the airways of mice during repair of both severe (300 mg/kg) and moderate (200 mg/kg) naphthalene-induced Clara cell injury. Quantitative real-time PCR for tff messenger RNA expression and immunohistochemistry for protein expression were applied to airway samples obtained by microdissection of airway trees or to fixed lung tissue from mice at 6 and 24 h and 4 and 7 days after exposure to either naphthalene or an oil (vehicle) control. All three TFF were expressed in normal whole lung and airways. TFF2 was the most abundant and was enriched in airways. Injury of the airway epithelium by 300 mg/kg naphthalene caused a significant induction of tff1 gene expression at 24 h, 4 days, and 7 days. In contrast, tff2 was decreased in the high-dose group at 24 h and 4 days but returned to baseline levels by 7 days. tff3 gene expression was not significantly changed at any time point. Protein localization via immunohistochemistry did not directly correlate with the gene expression measurements. TFF1 and TFF2 expression was most intense in the degenerating Clara cells in the injury target zone at 6 and 24 h. Following the acute injury phase, TFF1 and TFF2 were localized to the luminal apices of repairing epithelial cells and to the adjacent mesenchyme in focal regions that correlated with bifurcations and the bronchoalveolar duct junction. The temporal pattern of increases in TFF1, TFF2, and TFF3 indicate a role in cell death as well as proliferation, migration, and differentiation phases of airway epithelial repair.

Postnatal lung development of rhesus monkey airways: cellular expression of Clara cell secretory protein.

Clara cell secretory protein (CCSP) is a protective lung protein that is believed to have antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and anticarcinogenic properties. Evidence suggests that CCSP is involved in mitigating many lung disease states during development including asthma. This study's rationale is to define the distribution and abundance of CCSP in the airway epithelium of the rhesus monkey during postnatal lung development using carefully controlled site-specific morphometric approaches in defined airway regions. Immunoreactive CCSP was found in nonciliated cells and mucous cells, including glands, throughout the airway epithelium at all ages, with proximal and mid-level airways having the highest labeling. Overall airway CCSP levels were low at 1 week and 1 month, doubled between 1 and 3 months, and changed little from 3 months to 3 years. Thus, the critical developmental window for CCSP expression to reach adult levels in the rhesus conducting airways occurs between 1 and 3 months of age.

Ozone and allergen exposure during postnatal development alters the frequency and airway distribution of CD25+ cells in infant rhesus monkeys.

The epidemiologic link between air pollutant exposure and asthma has been supported by experimental findings, but the mechanisms are not understood. In this study, we evaluated the impact of combined ozone and house dust mite (HDM) exposure on the immunophenotype of peripheral blood and airway lymphocytes from rhesus macaque monkeys during the postnatal period of development. Starting at 30 days of age, monkeys were exposed to 11 cycles of filtered air, ozone, HDM aerosol, or ozone+HDM aerosol. Each cycle consisted of ozone delivered at 0.5 ppm for 5 days (8 h/day), followed by 9 days of filtered air; animals received HDM aerosol during the last 3 days of each ozone exposure period. Between 2-3 months of age, animals co-exposed to ozone+HDM exhibited a decline in total circulating leukocyte numbers and increased total circulating lymphocyte frequency. At 3 months of age, blood CD4+/CD25+ lymphocytes were increased with ozone+HDM. At 6 months of age, CD4+/CD25+ and CD8+/CD25+ lymphocyte populations increased in both blood and lavage of ozone+HDM animals. Overall volume of CD25+ cells within airway mucosa increased with HDM exposure. Ozone did not have an additive effect on volume of mucosal CD25+ cells in HDM-exposed animals, but did alter the anatomical distribution of this cell type throughout the proximal and distal airways. We conclude that a window of postnatal development is sensitive to air pollutant and allergen exposure, resulting in immunomodulation of peripheral blood and airway lymphocyte frequency and trafficking.

Pulmonary architecture in the conducting regions of six rats.

Rats are widely used for studies of pulmonary toxicology and lung disease. Several studies suggest nominal geometric parameters describing the architecture of the rat airway. However, intersubject variance has never been reported due to the huge effort and time to take these manual measurements. In this study, we present statistics of the branching pattern of six healthy male Sprague Dawley rats by automatically analyzing computed tomography images of silicon casts of their airways. Details of branching characteristics and also intersubject variance are presented. In addition, this study shows that mean and standard deviation of many geometric parameters insufficiently represent pulmonary architecture because some, such as diameter-asymmetry, are not normally distributed. Detailed statistics including inter- and intrasubject variance and distribution of the geometric parameters will aid in constructing more realistic airway models for particle transport and studies of normal and abnormal respiratory physiology.

Expiration rate drives human airway design.

Analyses of human airway architecture based on calculations of airflow resistance or energy dissipation suggest that the branching pattern is not optimized for minimizing energy loss by flow dissipation during respiration. Airway flow dissipates only a few percent of the total body work during normal breathing, so branching patterns deviate from minimum energy loss to also optimize other physiological needs. Studies of airway performance often record some measure of expiration, such as FEV1 (Forced Expiratory Volume in 1s), because airway constriction during expiration limits the rate of rapid respiration. We posit that lung structure is optimized for the rate of expiration as well as minimum energy loss. By increasing the daughter-to-parent airway diameter ratio (h) from 0.794 (corresponding to the energy minimum for symmetrically branching airways) to 0.85 (the observed value in humans) luminal pressures at airway generations 4-15 were substantially increased during exercise (a 4.5 and 15 cmH2O increase during moderate and heavy exercise, respectively). Values of h somewhat larger than 0.794 help airways remain open during expiration by increasing both viscous pressure drop and convective acceleration pressure drop. Asymmetric bifurcations also exhibit higher proximal airway pressures than symmetric ones, but the improvement was not large.

The non-human primate as a model for studying COPD and asthma.

This review evaluates the current status of information regarding the nonhuman primate as an experimental model for defining mechanisms of chronic airways disease in humans, using the concept of the epithelial-mesenchymal trophic unit (EMTU) as a basis for comparison with other laboratory species. All of the cellular and acellular compartments within the walls of tracheobronchial airways which interact as the EMTU are present throughout the airway tree in human and nonhuman primates. The epithelial compartment contains mucous goblet and basal cells in the surface epithelium and submucosal glands within the wall. The interstitial compartment of primates has a prominent subepithelial basement membrane zone (BMZ) with an attenuated fibroblast sheath and cartilage throughout the tree. In primates, there is an extensive transition zone between distal conducting airways and lung parenchyma composed of numerous generations of respiratory bronchioles. None of these features are characteristic of intrapulmonary airways in rodents, whose airways do share ciliated cells, smooth muscle cells, nerve networks, vasculature and inflammatory cell populations with primates. While the numbers of intrapulmonary airway branches are similar for most mammals, branching patterns, which dictate distribution of inhaled materials, are more uniform (dichotomous) in primates and less so (monopodial) in rodents. Development of tracheobronchial airways (both differentiation of the EMTU and overall growth) occurs over an extensive postnatal period (months to years) in primates and a comparably shorter time period (2-3 weeks) in rodents. As with allergic airways disease in humans, experimental exposure of nonhuman primates to a known human allergen, house dust mite, produces extensive remodeling of all compartments of the EMTU: mucous goblet cell hyperplasia, epithelial sloughing, basement membrane zone (BMZ) thickening and reorganization, altered attenuated fibroblast function, subepithelial fibrosis and smooth muscle thickening. Experimental allergic airways disease in nonhuman primates also shares other features with asthmatic humans: positive skin test to allergen; allergen-specific circulating IgE; airway hyper responsiveness to allergen, histamine and methacholine; increased eosinophils, IGE positive cells and mucins in airway exudate; and migratory leukocyte accumulations in the airway wall and lumen. Experimental exposure of nonhuman primates to reactive gases, such as ozone, produces the chronic respiratory bronchiolitis and other airway alterations associated with restricted airflow and chronic respiratory bronchiolitis characteristic of COPD in young smokers. We conclude that nonhuman primate models are appropriate for defining mechanisms as they relate to allergic airways disease and COPD in humans.

Bifurcation model for characterization of pulmonary architecture.

A flexible mathematical model of an asymmetric bronchial airway bifurcation is presented. The bifurcation structure is automatically determined after the user specifies geometric parameters: radius of parent airway, radii of daughter airways, radii of curvature of the daughter branch toroids, bifurcation angles, and radius of curvature of carina ridge. Detailed shape in the region where the three airways merge is defined by several explicit functions and can be changed with ease in accordance with observed lung structure. These functions take into account the blunt shape of the carina, the smooth transition from the outer transition zone to the inner one, and the shift in carinal ridge starting position as a function of bifurcation asymmetry. We validated the bifurcation model by comparing it to a computed tomography image of a rat lung cast. Three-dimensional representations of the bifurcation geometry can be viewed at http://mae.ucdavis.edu/wexler/lungs/bifurc.htm.

Long-term ozone exposure attenuates 1-nitronaphthalene-induced cytotoxicity in nasal mucosa.

1-Nitronaphthalene (1-NN) and ozone are cytotoxic air pollutants commonly found as components of photochemical smog. The mechanism of toxicity for 1-NN involves bioactivation by cytochrome P450s and subsequent adduction to proteins. Previous studies have shown that 1-NN toxicity in the lung is considerably higher in rats after long-term exposure to ozone compared with the corresponding filtered air-exposed control rats. The aim of the present study was to establish whether long-term exposure to ozone alters the susceptibility of nasal mucosa to the bioactivated toxicant, 1-NN. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to filtered air or 0.8 ppm ozone for 8 hours per day for 90 days, followed by a single treatment with 0, 12.5, or 50.0 mg/kg 1-NN by intraperitoneal injection. The results of the histopathologic analyses show that the nasal mucosa of rats is a target of systemic 1-NN, and that long-term ozone exposure markedly lessens the severity of injury, as well as the protein adduct formation by reactive 1-NN metabolites. The antagonistic effects were primarily seen in the nasal transitional epithelium, which corresponds to the main site of histologic changes attributed to ozone exposure (goblet cell metaplasia and hyperplasia). Long-term ozone exposure did not appear to alter susceptibility to 1-NN injury in other nasal regions. This study shows that long-term ozone exposure has a protective effect on the susceptibility of nasal transitional epithelium to subsequent 1-NN, a result that clearly contrasts with the synergistic toxicological effect observed in pulmonary airway epithelium in response to the same exposure regimen.

Assessing the health effects and risks associated with children's inhalation exposures--asthma and allergy.

Adults and children may have different reactions to inhalation exposures due to differences in target tissue doses following similar exposures, and/or different stages in lung growth and development. In the case of asthma and allergy both the developing immune system and initial encounters with common allergens contribute to this differential susceptibility. Asthma, the most common chronic childhood disease, has significant public health impacts and is characterized by chronic lung inflammation, reversible airflow obstruction, and immune sensitization to allergens. Animal studies described here suggest that air pollutants exacerbate asthma symptoms and may also play a role in disease induction. Changes characteristic of asthma were observed in rhesus monkeys sensitized to house dust mite antigen (HDMA) as infants and exposed repeatedly thereafter to ozone (O3) and HDMA. O3 exposure compromised airway growth and development and exacerbated the allergen response to favor intermittent airway obstruction and wheeze. In Brown Norway rats a variety of air pollutants enhanced sensitization to HDMA such that symptoms elicited in response to subsequent allergen challenge were more severe. Although useful for assessing air pollutants effects on initial sensitization, the rodent immune system is immature at birth relative to humans, making this model less useful for studying differential effects between adults and children. Because computational models available to address children's inhalation exposures are limited, default adjustments and their associated uncertainty will continue to be used in children's inhalation risk assessment. Because asthma is a complex (multiple genes, phenotypes, organ systems) disease, this area is ripe for systems biology approaches.

The effects of inhaled corticosteroids on intrinsic responsiveness and histology of airways from infant monkeys exposed to house dust mite allergen and ozone.

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are recommended to treat infants with asthma, some with intermittent asthma. We previously showed that exposing infant monkeys to allergen/ozone resulted in asthma-like characteristics of their airways. We evaluated the effects of ICS on histology and intrinsic responsiveness of allergen/ozone-exposed and normal infant primate airways. Infant monkeys were exposed by inhalation to (1) filtered air and saline, (2) house dust mite allergen (HDMA)+ozone and saline, (3) filtered air and ICS (budesonide) or (4) HDMA+ozone and ICS. Allergen/ozone exposures started at 1 month and ICS at 3 months of age. At 6 months of age, methacholine-induced changes in luminal area of airways in proximal and distal lung slices were determined using videomicrometry, followed by histology of the same slices. Proximal airway responsiveness was increased by allergen/ozone and by ICS. Eosinophil profiles were increased by allergen/ozone in both proximal and distal airways, an effect that was decreased by ICS in distal airways. In both allergen/ozone- and air-exposed monkeys, ICS increased the number of alveolar attachments in distal airways, decreased mucin in proximal airways and decreased epithelial volume in both airways. ICS increased smooth muscle in air-exposed animals while decreasing it in allergen/ozone-exposed animals in both airways. In proximal airways, there was a small but significant positive correlation between smooth muscle and airway responsiveness, as well as between alveolar attachments and responsiveness. ICS change morphology and function in normal airways as well as allergen/ozone-exposed airways, suggesting that they should be reserved for infants with active symptoms.

Three-dimensional mapping of ozone-induced injury in the nasal airways of monkeys using magnetic resonance imaging and morphometric techniques.

Age-related changes in gross and microscopic structure of the nasal cavity may alter local tissue susceptibility as well as the dose of inhaled toxicant delivered to susceptible sites. This article describes a novel method for the use of magnetic resonance imaging, 3-dimensional airway modeling, and morphometric techniques to characterize the distribution and magnitude of ozone-induced nasal injury in infant monkeys. Using this method, we generated age-specific, 3-dimensional, epithelial maps of the nasal airways of infant Rhesus macaques. The principal nasal lesions observed in this primate model of ozone-induced nasal toxicology were neutrophilic rhinitis, along with necrosis and exfoliation of the epithelium lining the anterior maxilloturbinate. These lesions, induced by acute or cyclic (episodic) exposures, were examined by light microscopy, quantified by morphometric techniques, and mapped on 3-dimensional models of the nasal airways. Here, we describe the histopathologic, imaging, and computational biology methods developed to precisely characterize, localize, quantify, and map these nasal lesions. By combining these techniques, the location and severity of the nasal epithelial injury were correlated with epithelial type, nasal airway geometry, and local biochemical and molecular changes on an individual animal basis. These correlations are critical for accurate predictive modeling of exposure-dose-response relationships in the nasal airways, and subsequent extrapolation of nasal findings in animals to humans for determining risk.