BACKGROUND Adverse health effects of tobacco smoke arise partly from its influence on innate and adaptive immune responses, leading to impaired innate immunity and host defense. The impact of smoking on allergic asthma remains unclear, with various reports demonstrating that cigarette smoke enhances asthma development but can also suppress allergic airway inflammation. Based on our previous fin...

BACKGROUND Estimated ambient concentrations of acrolein, a hazardous air pollutant, are greater than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reference concentration throughout the United States, making it a concern for human health. However, there is no method for assessing the extent of risk under the U.S. EPA noncancer risk assessment framework. OBJECTIVES We estimated excess risks f...

Cyclophosphamide must be metabolically activated to have maximal mutagenic or teratogenic activity. The first step in this activation is hydroxylation to 4-hydroxycyclophosphamide; this metabolite breaks down to form two cytotoxic metabolites, phosphoramide mustard and acrolein. In this report, the mutagenicity and teratogenicity of Cyclophosphamide, 4-hydroperoxycyclophosphamide (which forms 4...

The target site for inhaled vapor-induced injury often differs in mouth-breathing humans compared with nose-breathing rats, thus complicating the use of rat inhalation toxicity data for assessment of human risk. We sought to examine sensitivity of respiratory/transitional nasal (RTM) and tracheobronchial (TBM) mucosa to two electrophilic irritant vapors: diacetyl and acrolein. Computational flu...

lcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a consequence of Achronic alcohol abuse. Alcoholic hepatitis (AH) and alcoholic cirrhosis are 2 major disease forms that worsen morbidity and mortality in patients with ALD. Approximately 35% of heavy alcohol drinkers develop AH and 40% of severe AH patients die within 6 months; AH patients who survive may progress to alcoholic cirrhosis. The treatment for severe...

Methods BALB/c mice were nasally sensitized 5 times in biweekly intervals with KLH alone or with KLH in conjunction with acrolein. Airway hyperreactivity was was measured according to change of enhanced pause and KLH-specific anaphylactic reaction was monitored in vivo Levels of specific antibodies as well as cytokine profile of KLH-stimulated splenocytes were analyzed by ELISA. Further, mouse ...

Acrolein is a powerful irritant. Due to its highly reactive nature, the effects of acrolein are generally limited to the site of contact; skin, eyes and mucous membranes. Inhalation exposure to low levels (≤ 1 ppm) causes irritation of the eyes, nose and throat. Moderately higher exposures may result in severe lacrimation, and irritation of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract. Death d...