Tufvesson Ellen, van Weele Linda Jacqueline, Ekedahl Henrik, Bjermer Leif
Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Department of Clinical Sciences in Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Clin Respir J. 2010 Apr;4(2):83-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-699X.2009.00151.x.
Saliva contamination has been suggested to be a major contributor to levels of cysteinyl leukotrienes in exhaled breath condensate (EBC). The aim of this study was to compare the levels of cysteinyl-leukotrienes (CysLT) and alpha-amylase activity in EBC to induced sputum and saliva collected from the same subjects (asthmatics and control). We thereby aimed to find out whether saliva contamination could be a plausible explanation to the levels found in EBC or not.
EBC, saliva and induced sputum were collected from 11 asthmatic and 19 healthy adults. These samples were analyzed for CysLT concentration and alpha-amylase activity.
No significant correlation was found between CysLT concentration and alpha-amylase activity in EBC, saliva or sputum. In addition, we show that the saliva contamination (measured as alpha-amylase activity) was negligible, as the relative amount of saliva CysLT was only 0.6% of that found in EBC. The amount of CysLT correlated between all three compartments (EBC, saliva and sputum), but no similar correlation was seen for the alpha-amylase activity in EBC compared to saliva and sputum. The levels of CysLT were higher in asthmatic patients compared to healthy controls in EBC, saliva and sputum.
We conclude that the amount of CysLT in EBC cannot be explained by saliva contamination. Please cite this paper as: Tufvesson E, van Weele LJ, Ekedahl H and Bjermer L. Levels of cysteinyl-leukotrienes in exhaled breath condensate are not due to saliva contamination.
唾液污染被认为是呼出气冷凝液（EBC）中半胱氨酰白三烯水平的主要贡献因素。本研究的目的是比较EBC与同一受试者（哮喘患者和对照组）咳出的痰液及唾液中的半胱氨酰白三烯（CysLT）水平和α-淀粉酶活性。我们旨在确定唾液污染是否能合理解释EBC中发现的水平。
从11名哮喘患者和19名健康成年人中收集EBC、唾液和诱导痰液。对这些样本进行CysLT浓度和α-淀粉酶活性分析。
在EBC、唾液或痰液中，未发现CysLT浓度与α-淀粉酶活性之间存在显著相关性。此外，我们发现唾液污染（以α-淀粉酶活性衡量）可忽略不计，因为唾液CysLT的相对含量仅为EBC中发现含量的0.6%。所有三个样本（EBC、唾液和痰液）中的CysLT含量相关，但与唾液和痰液相比，EBC中的α-淀粉酶活性未呈现类似相关性。与健康对照组相比，哮喘患者的EBC、唾液和痰液中的CysLT水平更高。
我们得出结论，EBC中的CysLT含量不能用唾液污染来解释。请引用本文：Tufvesson E, van Weele LJ, Ekedahl H和Bjermer L. 呼出气冷凝液中半胱氨酰白三烯水平并非由唾液污染所致。
