Bronchoalveolar lavage performed in 10 patients with extrinsic asthma and 14 controls yielded similar recoveries of fluid and cells. Mast cells and eosinphils, however, formed a greater proportion of the cells recovered from the asthmatic subjects (p

Sodium cromoglycate and nedocromil sodium produced a dose dependent inhibition of histamine secretion from human pulmonary mast cells obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage and by enzymatic dissociation of lung parenchyma. Both compounds were significantly more active against the lavage cells than against the dispersed lung cells, and nedocromil sodium was an order of magnitude more effective than sodium cromoglycate against both cell types. Tachyphylaxis was observed with the parenchymal cells but not with the lavage cells. Nedocromil sodium and sodium cromoglycate also inhibited histamine release from the lavage cells of patients with sarcoidosis and extrinsic asthma.

The role of mycobacteria,

Mast cells make up between 0.5 and 3% (mean 1.35%) of total cells recovered by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). The majority of these cells have the morphological characteristics of mucosal mast cells in that they fail to stain in the alcian blue-safranin reaction after fixation in formol-saline but stain well after fixation in Carnoy's solution. Cells staining with berberine sulphate were seen in only four of the 26 lavages. BAL cells released histamine in response to anti-human immunoglobulin E (IgE) in a dose-dependent manner that was optimal at a dilution of anti-IgE of 1:100. Maximum release was obtained by 2 min. Histamine release was completely inhibited by a combination of 2-deoxyglucose (5 mmol/l) and antimycin A (1 mumol/l). Disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) significantly inhibited this histamine release at 1 mmol/l (P less than 0.02), 100 mumol/l (P less than 0.002) and 10 mumol/l (P less than 0.003), with maximum inhibition of 50.1% at 10 mumol/l.

Objective-To investigate the prevalence of