Effectiveness of oral N -acetylcysteine in a rat experimental model of asthma

Abstract Oxidative stress appears to be relevant to asthma pathogenesis. Therefore, the effectivenss of the antioxidant N -acetylcysteine was examined on antigen-induced pulmonary responses in sensitized Brown–Norway rats. N -acetylcysteine (oral, 1 mmol kg −1 per day for 7 days before challenge) did not reduce the immediate bronchospasm that followed aerosol antigen exposure but prevented airway hyperreactivity to 5-hydroxytryptamine at 24 h after antigen challenge, and reduced the eosinophils (from 0.178 ± 0.038 in the absence to 0.064 ± 0.020 ×10 6 cells ml −1 in the presence of N -acetylcysteine; P N -acetylcysteine failed to further increase these augmented levels. In conclusion, oral N -acetylcysteine showed beneficial effects in an in vivo model of experimental asthma, which confirm and extend the previous positive findings obtained in other models of lung injury.