title: Preventive effect of N-acetylcysteine in a mouse model of steroid resistant acute exacerbation of asthma.
abstract: Oxidative stress appears to have an important role in glucocorticoid insensitivity, as a crucial problem in asthma therapy. We studied the preventive effect of antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on the airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) and the accumulation of inflammatory cells in the airways in an animal model of steroid resistant acute exacerbation of asthma. Systemically sensitized Balb/C mice were exposed to Ovalbumin aerosol on days 13, 14, 15 and 16, followed by intratracheal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce acute exacerbation. NAC (intraperitoneal, 320 mg/kg 30 min before and 12 hours after each challenge) reduced hyper-responsiveness with/out dexamethasone. LPS application caused neutrophilia in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and eosinophil count was higher than respective control in BALF as well as neutrophils after dexamethasone treatment. NAC significantly decreased neutrophil and eosinophil count in BALF as well as inflammatory cytokines (IL-13 and IL-5).We concluded that addition of NAC to asthma therapy has beneficial preventive effects in an animal model of steroid resistant acute exacerbation of asthma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Parivash
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eftekhari
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sohrab
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hajizadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Raoufy
authors.affiliation: Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Masjedi
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hansbro
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.
authors.forename: Jing Jing
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia ; Division of Molecular Bioscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Foster
keywords: N-acetylcysteine; acute exacerbation; eosinophil; neutrophil; steroid resistant asthma