ecallantide and Bronchitis--Chronic

To investigate the kinin generation pathways in acute and chronic airway inflammation.. BALF from patients with acute, chronic airway inflammation and healthy controls were collected. Kinins, Plasma kallikrein, alpha 2-macroglobulin and toluenesulphonyl-arginine methyl ester esterase activity (TAME-ea) in BALF were studied.. Kinins and TAME-ea values were significantly higher in the BALF of patients with acute and chronic airway inflammation than those in the controls, but there was no significant difference between acute and chronic groups; PK and alpha 2-M values were significantly higher in the acute group than the in chronic one. Gel filtration revealed the highest TAME-ea peak at about 800,000 in the acute group, corresponding with the first alpha 2-M peak, whereas at about 40,000 in chronic bronchitis. The inhibition test of the TAME-ea showed that the TAME-ea peak at 800,000 was mainly due to PK and the TAME-ea peak at 40,000 was mainly due to TK.. The results indicated that in acute airway inflammation kinins seem to be mainly generated by PK, whereas in chronic inflammation kininogenases other than PK--such as TK--seem to be more important.

Topics: Acute Disease; Aged; alpha-Macroglobulins; Bronchitis; Bronchitis, Chronic; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid; Female; Humans; Kinins; Lung Neoplasms; Male; Middle Aged; Peptide Hydrolases; Plasma Kallikrein; Protease Inhibitors