Influence of Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide on Histamine and Interleukin Formation in a Human Nasal Mucosa Culture System

There is evidence that asthma and other allergic diseases are increasing and air pollution has been considered an important contributing factor to this observation. Using a specially designed organ culture system, we examined the influence of ozone (0.06 to 0.2 ppm) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2, 200 and 800 μg/m3) on nasal mucosa exposed for 24 h. Tissue was obtained from 105 patients undergoing surgical therapy (septoplasty and reduction of the inferior turbinates) for chronic nasal obstruction. The histamine content in the culture medium of ozone- and NO2-exposed samples was significantly elevated compared with the control cultures. This elevation was correlated with the number of degranulated mast cells in the tissue determined by histomorphometry (P < 0.001). Moreover, the cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β (P < 0.05), IL-6 (P < 0.01), IL-8 (P < 0.001), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α, P < 0.001) were significantly increased (ozone 0.1 ppm). Furthermore, we found significant increases in the release of IL-...