Branchial challenge of normal subjects with the endotoxin of Enterobacter agglomerans isolated from cotton dust.

Endotoxin produced by a culture of Enterobacter agglomerans isolated from cotton dust was inhaled by 12 normal subjects. No significant airway constriction was obtained in doses equivalent to those experienced in a workshift in a dusty mill. There was a statistically significant difference between this result and the bronchoconstriction that had occurred after flax dust inhalation in the same subjects. It is suggested that Enterobacter agglomerans endotoxin is not the causative agent of the acute bronchoconstriction that follows inhalation of textile dust.