Role of C fibers in the inflammatory response to intratracheal lipopolysaccharide.

We proposed that C fibers play a role in mediating the inflammatory response to the intratracheal instillation of lipopolysaccharaide (LPS), a purified form of endotoxin. To test this hypothesis, we compared the inflammatory response to intratracheal LPS (0.1-2.5 mg/kg) in rats whose C fibers had been destroyed by neonatal capsaicin treatment to the response seen in animals that were treated with vehicle. Three hours after the instillation of LPS, we assessed pulmonary inflammation by performing bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) on the animals. We measured the number of neutrophils, the concentration of protein as an index of vascular permeability, and the concentration of tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Our results indicate that capsaicin treatment resulted in more neutrophils and higher levels of protein and TNF in the BAL fluid in response to intratracheal LPS, compared with vehicle treatment. Using cells from both groups of rats, we also assessed the production of inflammatory mediators by alveolar macrophages incubated with LPS (0.3-30 ng/ml) in vitro. We found a modest increase in the concentration of TNF and nitrite in the supernatant of macrophages collected from capsaicin-treated rats, in comparison with vehicle-treated animals. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that intrinsic differences in the sensitivity of alveolar macrophages of capsaicin and vehicle-treated animals contribute to the greater inflammatory response of capsaicin-treated rat to intratracheal LPS.