Effects of sulfuric acid and nitrogen dioxide on airway responsiveness of the guinea pig.

Hartley guinea pigs were exposed for 1 h to either NO2 gas of H2SO4 aerosol and examined for changes in airway responsiveness to inhaled histamine. Concentrations ranged from 7 to 146 ppm NO2 and 4 to 40 mg/m3 H2SO4. One group of animals exposed to filtered air served as controls. Histamine challenges were performed on unanesthetized animals 2 h before pollutant or air exposure (baseline) and 10 min and 2 and 19 h after exposure. No2-exposed animals had increased histamine sensitivities 10 min after exposure, and the magnitude of the increase was directly dependent on the NO2 concentration. Most of the NO2-exposed animals demonstrated a dramatic return toward baseline values by 2 h after exposure; however, several animals had not returned to baseline by 19 h after exposure. Some animals exposed to H2SO4 developed severe labored breathing during exposure, and major increases in histamine sensitivity were observed only in those animals. These results suggest that both No2 and H2SO4 alter airway sensitivity to histamine, but apparently by different mechanisms. Changes produced by NO2 exposures appeared primarily concentration-dependent, while changes produced by H2SO4 exposures appeared related to dyspnea developed during exposure.