Sequential bronchoalveolar lavage in experimental extrinsic allergic alveolitis. The influence of cigarette smoking.

We studied the alterations induced by acute experimental extrinsic allergic alveolitis (EAA) on bronchoalveolar cell population in smoking and nonsmoking guinea pigs. Sixty-two animals divided into 3 groups were studied: Group 1 (17 animals), controls; Group 2 (21 animals), extrinsic alveolitis; Group 3 (24 animals), cigarette smoking and alveolitis. Bronchoalveolar lavages (BAL) were performed on Days 1, 19, and 44 for all animals. Group 3 animals had a fourth lavage before starting cigarette smoking, that is, 28 days before the beginning of the antigen injections. The other lavages were as for the other groups. BAL results on Day 1 were similar for each group. Cigarette smoking per se did not modify BAL in Group 3. EAA induction resulted in a large increase in all BAL cells, especially neutrophils of recovered fluid, which increased from 38 x 10(3) to 1,474 x 10(3) ml-1 (p less than 0.01) in Group 2 and from 58 x 10(3) to 740 x 10(3) in Group 3 (p less than 0.01). After maintenance, BAL neutrophils.ml-1 decreased to 444 x 10(3) in Group 2 (p less than 0.01), but stayed the same in Group 3: 973 x 10(3). After EAA induction, BAL neutrophils.ml-1 were higher in Group 2 than in Group 3 (p = 0.039); however, Group 2 had less neutrophils.ml-1 than Group 3 (p = 0.035) after EAA maintenance. We conclude that EAA results in a neutrophilic alveolitis and which can be evaluated by sequential BAL, and that cigarette smoking decreases the initial neutrophilic response and retards the eventual recovery during maintenance injections.