This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Dermatology  • General Rhinology  • Hypersensitivity  • Immunology  • Allergy  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Christopher T. Wootten, MD; Robert F. Labadie, MD, PhD; Anton Chen, MD; Kirk F. Lane, PhD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2006;132:1001-1007.

Objective  To characterize surfactant protein A (SP-A) expression in human nasal tissue and correlate differential expression of SP-A with symptoms suggestive of allergic rhinitis.

Design  Allergic rhinitis symptom data were prospectively collected in the form of the Rhinitis Symptom Utility Index, the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire, and a Visual Analog Scale. Immunohistochemical staining for SP-A was performed on resected nasal tissue. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction amplification of the SP-A gene referenced to -actin was performed on complementary DNA samples synthesized from total RNA isolates.

Setting  Academic tertiary referral center, department of otolaryngology laboratories.

Patients  Twenty-five consecutive patients undergoing nasal surgery.

Main Outcome Measures  Immunohistochemical staining of SP-A in human nasal mucosa and submucosa, polymerase chain reaction amplification of SP-A messenger RNA, and rhinitis symptom scores.

Results  Immunostaining localized SP-A to the mucosa and submucosal glands in specimens. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction demonstrated correlation between SP-A messenger RNA concentration and the total Rhinitis Symptom Utility Index score (0.51, P = .009) as well as "sneezing over the previous week" (0.40, P = .049), "runny nose over the previous week" (0.55, P = .005), and "sneezing today" (0.47, P = .02).

Conclusions  To our knowledge, this is the first report of SP-A expression in human nasal tissue. Furthermore, the degree of expression correlated with severity of disease as measured by the Rhinitis Symptom Utility Index in patients with allergic rhinitis symptoms.

Author Affiliations: Departments of Otolaryngology (Drs Wootten, Labadie, and Chen) and Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (Dr Lane), Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

A new tool to investigate differences between human SP-A1 and SP-A2
Oberley et al.
Am. J. Physiol. Lung Cell. Mol. Physiol. 2007;292:L1050-L1051.
FULL TEXT