BACKGROUND Evidence for the effectiveness of topical treatments, in providing symptomatic relief from ocular allergy, remains uncertain. AIMS To assess the effectiveness and relative efficacy of topical treatments for the management of seasonal allergic conjunctivitis. DESIGN OF STUDY A systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING A literature search of the Cochrane Library, Medline, and ...

AIM To validate the use of tear eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) as a marker for eosinophil activation, and its pharmacological modulation, in addition to evaluating the efficacy of lodoxamide and sodium cromoglycate in the treatment of vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC). METHODS Tears were collected from 30 patients affected by active mild to moderate VKC before and after therapy with disodi...

This paper, which was presented at the 17th JMRC 'John Robert Vane Memorial' Symposium, describes some recent work from the authors' laboratory that provides a tentative explanation for the anti-inflammatory effects produced by the cromoglycate-like anti-allergic drugs. Some of the implications of this finding are discussed.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although the 'cromones' (di-sodium cromoglycate and sodium nedocromil) are used to treat allergy and asthma, their 'mast cell stabilising' mechanism of pharmacological action has never been convincingly explained. Here, we investigate the hypothesis that these drugs act by stimulating the release of the anti-inflammatory protein Annexin-A1 (Anx-A1) from mast cells. EXPE...

Compounds that increase tissue concentrations of cyclic AMP inhibit the release of histamine from sensitized tissues when they are challenged with antigen. It has been proposed that the anti-asthmatic agent disodium cromoglycate exerts its anti-allergic properties by inhibiting cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase. This hypothesis was based on experiments where it was shown that the inhibition of antig...

BACKGROUND Inhaled propranolol causes bronchoconstriction in asthmatic subjects by an indirect mechanism which remains unclear. Inhaled frusemide has been shown to attenuate a number of indirectly acting bronchoconstrictor challenges. The aim of this study was to investigate whether frusemide could protect against propranolol-induced bronchoconstriction in patients with stable mild asthma. ME...

Hypoxia exposure often cause the increases of pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP). Studies reported that mast cells (MCs) participate in vascular remodeling and promote formation chronic hypertension. Current studies mainly focus on change MCs under hypoxia, but few regulatory role mechanism acute hypoxia. T?herefore, present study investigated dynamic lung tissues hypoxia activation increasement...