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Updated: Apr 15, 2026
Absorption of Nasal and Bronchial Fluids: Precision Sampling of the Human Respiratory Mucosa and Laboratory Processing of Samples
Published on: January 21, 2018
The change in nasal inflammatory markers after intranasal challenges with particulate chitin and lipopolysaccharide:
Torben Sigsgaard1, Peter S Thorne2, Vivi Schlünssen1
1Section of Environment, Occupation and Health, Department of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.
Background:
We investigated the effect of chitin on the inflammation and immune modulation of the nasal mucosa. This compound was compared to placebo and as a positive control we used lipopolysaccharide (LPS).
Methods:
Fourteen healthy nonsmoking volunteers 22 to 28 years of age were included. All persons underwent exposure to chitin microparticles (CP) and placebo in a randomized double-blinded fashion. In a last session we used LPS from Enterobacter agglomerans in a single-blinded fashion. There were 2 weeks between each session. The outcome measures were Total Nasal Symptom Score (TNSS) and nasal lavage for cytokines and cells at 0, 3, 4, 8 hours.
Results:
We showed that CP was only weakly inflammatory compared to LPS. In contrast to the LPS response, we did however show an immune-regulatory effect of CP on enhanced interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-6 responses known to downregulate T helper 2 (Th2) responses, indicating a potential beneficial effect of CP for the regulation of the allergic Th2 immune response.
Conclusion:
This study also shows that CP is well tolerated in healthy volunteers, and that does not induce significantly more symptoms compared to placebo. In fact there is a tendency for CP instillation to induce less rhinorrhoea compared to placebo.
