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Updated: Apr 7, 2026
Bronchoalveolar Lavage of Murine Lungs to Analyze Inflammatory Cell Infiltration
Published on: May 4, 2017
Increased β-glucuronidase activity in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of children with bacterial lung infection: A
Evgenia C Panagiotopoulou1, Sotirios Fouzas1,2, Konstantinos Douros3
1Respiratory Unit, Department of Paediatrics, University General Hospital of Patras, Rion-Patras, Greece.
Background And Objective:
β-Glucuronidase is a lysosomal enzyme released into the extracellular fluid during inflammation. Increased β-glucuronidase activity in the cerebrospinal and peritoneal fluid has been shown to be a useful marker of bacterial inflammation. We explored the role of β-glucuronidase in the detection of bacterial infection in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of paediatric patients.
Methods:
In this case-control study, % polymorphonuclear cell count (PMN%), β-glucuronidase activity, interleukin-8 (IL-8), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and elastase were measured in culture-positive (≥10(4) cfu/mL, C+) and -negative (C-) BALF samples obtained from children.
Results:
A total of 92 BALF samples were analysed. The median β-glucuronidase activity (measured in nanomoles of 4-methylumbelliferone (4-MU)/mL BALF/h) was 246.4 in C+ (interquartile range: 71.2-751) and 21.9 in C- (4.0-40.8) (P < 0.001). The levels of TNF-α and IL-8 were increased in C+ as compared with C- (5.4 (1.7-12.6) vs 0.7 (0.2-6.2) pg/mL, P < 0.001 and 288 (76-4300) vs 287 (89-1566) pg/mL, P = 0.042, respectively). Elastase level and PMN% did not differ significantly (50 (21-149) vs 26 (15-59) ng/mL, P = 0.051 and 20 (9-40) vs 18 (9-34) %, P = 0.674, respectively). The area under the curve of β-glucuronidase activity (0.856, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.767-0.920) was higher than that of TNF-α (0.718; 95% CI: 0.614-0.806; P = 0.040), IL-8 (0.623; 95% CI: 0.516-0.722; P = 0.001), elastase (0.645; 95% CI: 0.514-0.761; P = 0.008) and PMN% (0.526; 95 % CI: 0.418-0.632; P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates a significant increase of β-glucuronidase activity in BALF of children with culture-positive bacterial inflammation. In our population β-glucuronidase activity showed superior predictive ability for bacterial lung infection than other markers of inflammation.
