In vivo demonstration of inflammatory mediator release following nasal challenge with antigen.

An in vivo model system was developed to recover inflammatory mediators from the nose after antigen stimulation. In 105 experiments involving 35 subjects, antigen was introduced into the nose. Allergic individuals demonstrated an increase concentration of histamine, TAMe esterase and PgD2 during the physiologic changes of nasal obstruction and sneezing. Clinical symptoms and mediator release were highly correlated; moreover, the release of each mediator was significantly correlated to the others.