Provocation with adenosine 5'-monophosphate, but not methacholine, induces sputum eosinophilia.

INTRODUCTION: Bronchial hyper-responsiveness is usually measured with direct stimuli such as methacholine (MCh) or histamine. Adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP), which acts indirectly via the secondary release of mediators, is another stimulus to measure bronchial hyper-responsiveness.

AIM: To investigate whether provocation with inhaled AMP itself initiates an inflammatory response resulting in an influx of eosinophils into the airway lumen.

METHODS: We have included 21 non-smoking atopic asthmatic subjects (mean FEV1 101% predicted, mean age 34 years). Each subject performed three sputum inductions on different days, at least seven days apart: one without previous provocation, one hour after PC20 methacholine, and one hour after PC20 AMP.

RESULTS: After provocation with AMP, but not methacholine, the percentage of sputum eosinophils increased significantly (from 1.9+/-0.5% to 4.5+/-1% (P<0.01) and 1.9+/-0.5% (P=0.89)). No changes in the percentages of neutrophils, lymphocytes, macrophages, or bronchial epithelial cells were found.

CONCLUSION: A provocation test with AMP leads to an increased percentage of sputum eosinophils. This observation cannot be explained by a non-specific response of the airways to a vigorous bronchoconstriction, since methacholine had no effect on inflammatory cells.