Ammonia utilised for various purposes in the field of agriculture is considered one of the most hazardous pollutants, and is known to irritate the airways of farmers and animals. Vitamin A may participate in the modulation of host immune and inflammatory responses. In this study, the beneficial effects of vitamin A supplementation on ammonia-induced pulmonary inflammation and also lung stress due to suboptimal environmental temperature were examined. The results showed that ammonia inhalation significantly increased thromboxane A 2 (TXA 2 ) and leukotriene C 4 (LTC 4 ) production by the lungs, while vitamin A supplementation significantly reduced the production of TXA 2 and LTC 4 and it also enhanced prostaglandin I 2 (PGI 2 ) in ammonia-induced inflammatory lungs and increased PGI 2 production in the lungs of pigs raised at suboptimal environmental temperature. Thus, exposure to ammonia produces a disruptive defect in the lungs and vitamin A supplementation may relieve this detriment by modulating the production of pulmonary inflammatory mediators.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.