Zuskin E, Kanceljak B, Schachter E N, Witek T J, Mustajbegovic J, Maayani S, Buck M G, Rienzi N
Andrija Stampar School of Public Health, Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 1992;64(1):31-7. doi: 10.1007/BF00625948.
Immunological parameters were studied in a group of 24 cotton textile workers. These were volunteers from a cohort of 106 (83 women and 23 men) previously studied textile workers. A group of 30 employees from a bottle packing plant served as a control for the immunologic studies. The subgroup of volunteers undergoing immunologic testing did not differ from the original cohort of textile workers in age, sex, smoking history, or prevalence of most chronic respiratory symptoms, nor were there any significant differences in baseline lung function or across-shift changes. The 24 cotton worker volunteers underwent skin testing with extracts of cotton dust and cotton seed. Eight of these 24 (33.3%) had positive tests, and 5 of the 8 had elevated serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels. Only one of the 8 skin-test-positive workers had symptoms of byssinosis. Only 1 of 30 control workers' skin tested with cotton extract reacted, and none had an increased serum IgE level (P less than 0.01). Both baseline lung function and across-shift changes did not differ between workers with positive and negative skin test reactions or between workers with normal and elevated IgE levels. Additionally, we studied the response in vitro of nonsensitized guinea pig trachea to cotton bract extract and demonstrated a dose-dependent contractile response. These data suggest that while immunological findings are frequent in textile workers, they correlate poorly with respiratory symptoms and function and may not be the basis for the airway obstruction seen in this disease.
对一组24名棉纺织工人的免疫参数进行了研究。这些工人是从之前研究过的106名纺织工人（83名女性和23名男性）队列中招募的志愿者。一组来自瓶装厂的30名员工作为免疫研究的对照。接受免疫测试的志愿者亚组在年龄、性别、吸烟史或大多数慢性呼吸道症状的患病率方面与纺织工人的原始队列没有差异，基线肺功能或轮班期间的变化也没有显著差异。24名棉纺织工人志愿者接受了棉尘和棉籽提取物的皮肤测试。这24人中的8人（33.3%）测试呈阳性，其中5人的血清免疫球蛋白E（IgE）水平升高。8名皮肤测试呈阳性的工人中只有1人有棉屑沉着病症状。30名对照工人中只有1人用棉提取物进行皮肤测试有反应，且没有人血清IgE水平升高（P<0.01）。皮肤测试反应阳性和阴性的工人之间，以及IgE水平正常和升高的工人之间，基线肺功能和轮班期间的变化均无差异。此外，我们研究了未致敏豚鼠气管对棉苞提取物的体外反应，并证明了剂量依赖性收缩反应。这些数据表明，虽然纺织工人中免疫学发现很常见，但它们与呼吸道症状和功能的相关性很差，可能不是这种疾病中气道阻塞的基础。
