Lung phagocyte recruitment and metabolic alterations induced by cigarette smoke in humans and in hamsters

Cigarette smokers had an increased number of alveolar macrophages (AM) that had temporally related increases in oxidative metabolism in vitro compared with that in nonsmokers. The AM from young asymptomatic human cigarette smokers had a selective increase in superoxide anion (O2) release compared with those from nonsmokers. The AM from older smokers had a more intense, generalized enhancement of oxidative metabolism. Smoking hamsters had similar patterns of lung phagocyte recruitment and increased macrophage oxidative metabolism. The accumulation of AM within the alveolar ducts in smoking hamsters was strikingly similar to that seen in human smokers. The temporal patterns of smoke-induced changes in oxidative metabolism by AM from hamsters and humans were the same. Filtration of particulate constituents from cigarette smoke completely abrogated the distal airway inflammation and the metabolic alterations observed in smoking hamsters.