RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Inhibition of Superoxide Production by the Soluble Phase of Cystic Fibrosis Sputum
Amrita Dosanjh*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 80
Last Page: 83
Publisher ID: TORMJ-2-80
DOI: 10.2174/1874306400802010080
Article History:
Received Date: 23/6/2008Revision Received Date: 23/9/2008
Acceptance Date: 14/10/2008
Electronic publication date: 7/11/2008
Collection year: 2008

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background
Cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease is characterized by an infiltration of activated neutrophils. Oxidative radical formation and neutrophil proteases may interact with the components of CF airway secretions. This study examined the soluble factors in CF airway secretions (sol) and determined their effect on the production of superoxide radicals.
Methods
Neutrophils were isolated from three normal subjects. Each preparation of neutrophils can be used in several experiments on the same day of preparation. Using a standardized cytochrome c reduction method, the effect of pooled CF sol isolated from nine CF patients, on neutrophil superoxide production was studied.
Results
CF sol phase significantly attenuates the production of superoxide by phorbol stimulated control neutrophils in a time and concentration dependent manner. When CF sol is boiled, the inhibitory effect on superoxide was reversed. CF soluble heat labile factors clearly attenuated superoxide production, independent of elastase concentration. We conclude that the presence of heat labile soluble factors in CF sputum, serve to attenuate superoxide production by human neutrophils.