Clinical Features and Airways Inflammation in Never Smokers and Smokers With COPD

Healthy non-smoking subjects were never smokers with normal spirometry and did not have a history of lung disease or chronic respiratory symptoms.

Information about respiratory symptoms and comorbidities were collected. Healthy subjects underwent pulmonary function tests (Spirometry). Induced sputum was collected to determine total and differential inflammatory cells counts as well as inflammatory mediators (Interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha).

Induced sputum was collected and analysed in the three arms (Healthy subjects, Never smokers with COPD and smokers with COPD) The volume of the sputum sample, was treated with an equal volume of 0.1% dithiothreitol. The samples were then vortexed and placed in a shaking water bath at 37°C for 15 min to ensure complete homogeneisation. The suspensions were centrifuged at 400× g and the sputum supernatant stored at -80°C until cytokines analysis. The cell pellet was resuspended in 0.5% bovine serum albumin in phosphate buffered saline and cytospin were made by putting 100 µL of the cell suspension in the funnels.

Slides for differential cell counts were stained with May-Grünwald Giemsa.

All the subjects underwent pulmonary function tests (Healthy subjects, Never smokers with COPD and smokers with COPD).

Pulmonary function parameters were measured using a portable spirometer (Easy One ndd. Medizintechnik; Zurich, Switzerland) according to the ATS criteria (American Thoracic Society). Reversibility test was performed 15 min after inhalation of 400 µg of Salbutamol (Ventolin, GlaxoSmithKline, Middlesex, UK). All spirometry data were graded for quality and only tests that met high quality scores were used for the final analysis.

• spirometria

IL-8 and TNF-α were measured in the sputum supernatant of all the subjects (Healthy subjects, Never smokers with COPD and smokers with COPD).

Commercially available kits were used to detect IL-8 (Human IL-8 Immuno-Biological Laboratories ELISA Kit) and TNF-α (Human TNF-alpha Sigma-Aldrich ELISA Kit) concentrations in the sputum supernatants. The absorbance was measured at 450 nm. The lower limits detection were 2 pg/mL for IL-8 and 5 pg/mL for TNF-α. The intra assay coefficients of variability were 8.7% for IL-8 and 7.7% for TNF- α.

• ELISA

Never smokers referred to subjects who had never smoked Airflow limitation in COPD was defined as a post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio <70% and FEV1 reversibility of <12% and 200 mL from baseline values after inhalation of 400 µg of Salbutamol.

Information about respiratory symptoms and comorbidities were collected. Never smoking subjects with COPD underwent pulmonary function tests (Spirometry). Induced sputum was collected to determine total and differential inflammatory cells counts as well as inflammatory mediators (Interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha).

Induced sputum was collected and analysed in the three arms (Healthy subjects, Never smokers with COPD and smokers with COPD) The volume of the sputum sample, was treated with an equal volume of 0.1% dithiothreitol. The samples were then vortexed and placed in a shaking water bath at 37°C for 15 min to ensure complete homogeneisation. The suspensions were centrifuged at 400× g and the sputum supernatant stored at -80°C until cytokines analysis. The cell pellet was resuspended in 0.5% bovine serum albumin in phosphate buffered saline and cytospin were made by putting 100 µL of the cell suspension in the funnels.

Slides for differential cell counts were stained with May-Grünwald Giemsa.

All the subjects underwent pulmonary function tests (Healthy subjects, Never smokers with COPD and smokers with COPD).

Pulmonary function parameters were measured using a portable spirometer (Easy One ndd. Medizintechnik; Zurich, Switzerland) according to the ATS criteria (American Thoracic Society). Reversibility test was performed 15 min after inhalation of 400 µg of Salbutamol (Ventolin, GlaxoSmithKline, Middlesex, UK). All spirometry data were graded for quality and only tests that met high quality scores were used for the final analysis.

• spirometria

IL-8 and TNF-α were measured in the sputum supernatant of all the subjects (Healthy subjects, Never smokers with COPD and smokers with COPD).

Commercially available kits were used to detect IL-8 (Human IL-8 Immuno-Biological Laboratories ELISA Kit) and TNF-α (Human TNF-alpha Sigma-Aldrich ELISA Kit) concentrations in the sputum supernatants. The absorbance was measured at 450 nm. The lower limits detection were 2 pg/mL for IL-8 and 5 pg/mL for TNF-α. The intra assay coefficients of variability were 8.7% for IL-8 and 7.7% for TNF- α.

• ELISA

Smokers were defined as persons who had smoked > 20 packs of cigarettes in a lifetime and who continue smoking every day.

Airflow limitation in COPD was defined as a post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio <70% and FEV1 reversibility of <12% and 200 mL from baseline values after inhalation of 400 µg of Salbutamol.

Information about respiratory symptoms and comorbidities were collected. Smoking subjects with COPD underwent pulmonary function tests (Spirometry). Induced sputum was collected to determine total and differential inflammatory cells counts as well as inflammatory mediators (Interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha).

Induced sputum was collected and analysed in the three arms (Healthy subjects, Never smokers with COPD and smokers with COPD) The volume of the sputum sample, was treated with an equal volume of 0.1% dithiothreitol. The samples were then vortexed and placed in a shaking water bath at 37°C for 15 min to ensure complete homogeneisation. The suspensions were centrifuged at 400× g and the sputum supernatant stored at -80°C until cytokines analysis. The cell pellet was resuspended in 0.5% bovine serum albumin in phosphate buffered saline and cytospin were made by putting 100 µL of the cell suspension in the funnels.

Slides for differential cell counts were stained with May-Grünwald Giemsa.

All the subjects underwent pulmonary function tests (Healthy subjects, Never smokers with COPD and smokers with COPD).

Pulmonary function parameters were measured using a portable spirometer (Easy One ndd. Medizintechnik; Zurich, Switzerland) according to the ATS criteria (American Thoracic Society). Reversibility test was performed 15 min after inhalation of 400 µg of Salbutamol (Ventolin, GlaxoSmithKline, Middlesex, UK). All spirometry data were graded for quality and only tests that met high quality scores were used for the final analysis.

• spirometria

IL-8 and TNF-α were measured in the sputum supernatant of all the subjects (Healthy subjects, Never smokers with COPD and smokers with COPD).

Commercially available kits were used to detect IL-8 (Human IL-8 Immuno-Biological Laboratories ELISA Kit) and TNF-α (Human TNF-alpha Sigma-Aldrich ELISA Kit) concentrations in the sputum supernatants. The absorbance was measured at 450 nm. The lower limits detection were 2 pg/mL for IL-8 and 5 pg/mL for TNF-α. The intra assay coefficients of variability were 8.7% for IL-8 and 7.7% for TNF- α.

• ELISA