Bronchoalveolar Lavage in the Normal Lung

Abstract

Bronchoalveolar lavage was performed on 12 healthy volunteers, comprising 6 smokers and 6 nonsmokers, of ages between 21 and 52 years. The aim was to define normal variability of certain biochemical, immunologic, enzymologic and ionic parameters. The smoking habit was observed to exert a significant influence on the recovery percentage of lavage effluents (with recovery less in smokers, 53 vs. 69%) and particularly on the concentration of immunoglobulins in the lavage liquids. In particular, the IgG increased by about 4 times in smokers (1.05 vs. 0.26 mg/100 ml) and the IgA by about 3 times (0.35 vs. 0.11 mg/100 ml). The other parameters studied (total proteins, albumins, IgM, α₁-AT, K, Ca and several enzyme activities) did not differ significantly from one group to the other. Rather than an alteration in the blood-alveolar barrier from smoking, these data suggest a real local overproduction of immunoglobulins of classes G and A induced by the smoking habit. Moreover, the relatively slight individual oscillation in the values of the parameters studied in the two groups supports the possibility of employing them for diagnostic purposes in bronchopneumopathies

Bronchoalveolar lavage proteins

“…In an extensive study Bell and co-workers [6] showed for the human 23 serum identical antigens (Table I). As shown in own experiments [64] and also by others most serum proteins occure in the same distribution as measured in the blood serum [6,28,70,83,85]. The molecular weight of the serum identical proteins found in the bronchoalveolar lavage range up to 160,000 daltons indicating that there is a restriction in passage of high molecular weight proteins [5,6].…”

Enzyme Levels in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid and Serum of Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients

“…The studies done on BALF include cell population, im munoglobulin levels and protein levels [1][2][3][4]. However, the study of BALF enzymes is scanty and no information is available on pulmonary tuberculosis.…”

“…Velluti et al [4] have demonstrated various intracellular and brush border membrane enzymes in normal volunteers and smokers. The diseases which can cause lung tissue damage may change the levels of intracellular and brush border enzymes in BALF.…”

Effect of smoking on bronchoalveolar lavage constituents

“…Immunoglobulins G and A (IgG and IgA) were among the early investigated non-celluJar compounds in BAL fluid, both having been found to be normal or increased in smokers [48][49][50][51]. Later, elevated histamine and tryptase levels were observed in smokers' BAL fluid, suggesting increased mast cell degranulation in the airways of smokers [52].…”