http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19333615
Jönsson LS, Broberg K, Paulsson K, Kronholm Diab K, Nielsen J.
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of
Laboratory Medicine, Lund University Hospital, 221 85, Lund, Sweden,
lena_s.jonsson@med.lu.se.
Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2009 Mar 31.
OBJECTIVES:
Many hairdressers experience work-related symptoms from the airways caused
by bleaching powder. This contains persulphates, which could be irritating
to the mucous membrane and also may evoke an allergic reaction. However,
specific IgE antibodies are difficult to detect. We found earlier that
hairdressers with work-related bleaching powder-associated nasal symptoms
reacted to persulphate, but that atopics also did and that the mechanism
appeared to be similar in the two groups. In this study, we analysed gene
expression of cytokines in the nose in order to further investigate the
mechanism for work-related bleaching powder-associated nasal symptoms.
METHODS:
The study subjects belonged to either hairdressers with work-related
bleaching powder-associated nasal symptoms (S; n = 6), hairdressers without
work-related bleaching powder-associated symptoms (WS; n = 7) or atopics (A;
n = 6). Nasal lavage was performed before and during (up to 4 h after the
last challenge) provocation with potassium persulphate. Expression of two
genes involved in allergic inflammation [interleukin 5 (IL5) and IL13] and
one involved in cell-mediated immunity (interferon-gamma; IFNG) were
analysed in nasal lavage with quantitative PCR.
RESULTS:
The change of IL5 in the S group differed when compared to the WS group (P =
0.0051), in the A group when compared to the WS group (P = 0.014), but not
in the S group when compared to the A group (P = 0.82). The change of IL13
in the A group differed when compared to the S (P = 0.041) and WS (P =
0.014) groups, but no difference was noticed between the S and WS groups (P
= 0.30). The relative level of IFNG increased from before challenge to
during challenge in the S group (P = 0.031).
CONCLUSIONS:
Symptomatic hairdressers showed increased expression of IL5 and IFNG, but
not IL13, during challenge. Hairdressers without work-related bleaching
powder-associated nasal symptoms showed no markedly changed reaction.
Atopics showed increased expression of IL5 and IL13. Thus, this may indicate
a difference in the mechanism of symptoms between symptomatic hairdressers
and atopics. However, due to the low number of participants, further studies
are needed to elucidate the mechanism for persulphate-associated nasal
symptoms.
PMID: 19333615 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
