OBJECTIVE Allergic rhinitis has been frequently associated with both acute and chronic sinusitis. Previous studies have shown an influx of eosinophils into the maxillary sinus after nasal challenge with allergen. The objective of this study was to determine, in humans, if the development of seasonal allergic inflammation, secondary to natural allergen exposure, leads to similar inflammation wit...

BACKGROUND Allergic rhinitis and asthma may be associated, bronchial hyperreactivity (BHR) is quite common in AR patients. It has been reported that allergen bronchial challenge induces nasal inflammation. Methacholine (MCH) is a stimulus able to elicit BHR. There is no study that investigated the effect of MCH bronchial challenge on the nose. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate w...

OBJECTIVE To study the importance of ongoing allergen exposure and TH1/TH2 genetic background in augmented bacterial and inflammatory responses in allergic and infected mice. DESIGN BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice were made allergic to ovalbumin. After 1 day of intranasal allergen exposure, they were inoculated intranasally with Streptococcus pneumoniae. The numbers of bacteria and inflammatory cells...

BACKGROUND The GA2LEN chamber has been developed as a novel mobile allergen exposure chamber (AEC) allowing standardized multicenter trials in allergy. Hitherto, subjective nasal symptom scores have been the most often used outcome parameter, but in standardized modern trials objective parameters are preferred. Despite its practicability, the objective parameter peak nasal inspiratory flow (PNI...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are important in barrier homeostasis, but their role in airborne allergies is not fully understood. The aim was to evaluate baseline and allergen-induced expression of TLR proteins in nasal epithelium during allergic rhinitis. Nineteen otherwise healthy non-smoking volunteers both allergic to birch pollen and non-allergic controls were enrolled. We took nasal biopsies...

In this study we undertook to provide evidence for local in vivo isotype switching to IgE following nasal challenges. Detection of deleted switch circular DNA (switch circles) by a novel nested polymerase chain reaction-based approach was employed as definitive molecular evidence of Ig isotype switching. Nasal challenge in humans with diesel exhaust particles (DEP) plus ragweed antigen has been...

BACKGROUND Allergen exposure via the respiratory tract and in particular via the nasal mucosa boosts systemic allergen-specific IgE production. Intranasal corticosteroids (INCS) represent a first line treatment of allergic rhinitis but their effects on this boost of allergen-specific IgE production are unclear. AIM Here we aimed to determine in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study whether...

BACKGROUND Botanical products are frequently used for treatment of nasal allergy. Three of these substances, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Malpighia glabra, and Bidens pilosa, have been shown to have a number of anti-allergic properties in-vitro. The current study was conducted to determine the effects of these combined ingredients upon the nasal response to allergen challenge in patients with seasona...

Allergic asthma and rhinitis are inflammatory diseases of the airways. Allergic asthma is characterized by eosinophilic inflammation, reversible bronchoconstriction and airway hyperresponsiveness, whereas patients with rhinitis suffer from nasal inflammation, leading to rhinorrhea and nasal congestion. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are one of the major drugs for asthma and rhinitis treatment and can re...