| Effect of Formaldehyde on Asthmatic Response to Inhaled Allergen Challenge Véronique Ezratty,1 Marcel Bonay,2,3 Catherine Neukirch,2,4,5 Gaëlle Orset-Guillossou,1 Monique Dehoux,2,6 Serge Koscielny,7 Pierre-André Cabanes,1 Jacques Lambrozo,1 and Michel Aubier2,3,4,5 1Service des Etudes Médicales d'EDF et de Gaz de France, Paris, France; 2Unité 700, INSERM, Faculté Xavier Bichat, Paris, France; 3Service de Physiologie-Explorations Fonctionnelles, 4Service de Pneumologie, 5Clinical Centre of Investigation INSERM 007, and 6Biochimie A, Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard, Paris, France; 7Department of Biostatistics, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France Abstract
Background: Exposure to formaldehyde may lead to exacerbation of asthma. Objectives: Our aim in this study was to investigate whether exposure to a low level (500 µg/m3) of formaldehyde enhances inhaled allergen responses. Methods: Twelve subjects with intermittent asthma and allergy to pollen were exposed, at rest, in a double-blind crossover study to either formaldehyde or purified air for 60 min. The order of exposure to formaldehyde and air-only was randomized, and exposures were separated by 2 weeks. We also performed an allergen inhalation challenge after each exposure. Airway responsiveness to methacholine and lower airway inflammation (induced sputum) were assessed 8 hr after allergen challenge. Results: The median dose of allergen producing a 15% decrease in forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (PD15FEV1) was 0.80 IR (index of reactivity) after formaldehyde exposure compared with 0.25 IR after air-only exposure (p = 0.06) . Formaldehyde exposure did not affect allergen-induced increase in responsiveness to methacholine (p = 0.42) . We found no formaldehyde-associated effect on the airway inflammatory response, in particular the eosinophilic inflammatory response, induced by the allergen challenge 8 hr before. Conclusion: In this study, exposure to 500 µg/m3 formaldehyde had no significant deleterious effect on airway allergen responsiveness of patients with intermittent asthma ; we found a trend toward a protective effect. Key words: allergen, asthma, formaldehyde, human exposure study. Environ Health Perspect 115:210–214 (2007) . doi:10.1289/ehp.9414 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 7 November 2006]
Address correspondence to V. Ezratty, Service des Etudes Médicales d'EDF et de Gaz de France, 22-28 rue Joubert, 75009 Paris, France. Telephone: 33 1 55 31 46 04. Fax: 33 1 55 31 46 20. E-mail: veronique.ezratty@edfgdf.fr We thank M. Grandsaigne and V. Leçon-Malas for their contribution to this work, and S. Billot Bonef and D. Ormandy for their valuable advice. This work was supported by Electricité de France as part of a research programme on Indoor Air Quality. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 13 June 2006 ; accepted 7 November 2006.
The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
