The effect of platelet-activating factor (PAF) on nasal airway resistance in healthy subjects is not mediated by nitric oxide.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Bradykinin and Platelet Activating Factor, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The nose is an important source of nitric oxide (NO) in man, but the relevance of NO production to the response to inflammatory mediators is not clear.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, both men and women.

Eight healthy subjects were enrolled in the study.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and double-blind study.

Because people in this Bradykinin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Bradykinin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

In this study, the researchers evaluated the effect of NO inhibition on nasal airway resistance (NAR) at baseline, after an acute challenge with platelet-activating factor (PAF), a potent proinflammatory factor, and after an acute challenge with bradykinin (BK), both of which are mediators of allergic rhinitis in man.

Nasal NO production was measured by the chemiluminescence method, and NAR was measured by active anterior rhinomanometry.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Airway Resistance, Bradykinin, NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester, Nasal Obstruction, Nasal Provocation Tests, Nitric Oxide and Nitric Oxide Synthase.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Bradykinin and Platelet Activating Factor.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2000 (Allergy), a journal based in Denmark.

More context: the related Bradykinin library page, all human trials.