2 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Purpose: The purpose of this protocol is to compare the genetic and epigenetic effects between diesel exhaust and ozone exposure in healthy individuals and in mild/moderate asthmatics. Participants: The investigators will recruit up to 30 mild to moderate asthmatics and up to 50 healthy adults to participate in this study. Procedures (methods): Subjects will be exposed to clean air, to 300 µg/m3 of diesel exhaust for 2 hours and to 0.3 ppm of ozone for 2 hours with intermittent exercise in a controlled environment chamber. Primary endpoints will include spirometry and lung cell changes post-exposure. Secondary endpoints will include analysis of blood clotting/coagulation factors, Holter monitoring of cardiac parameters, analysis of soluble factors present in plasma and bronchial lavage and analysis of intracellular factors present in lung tissue obtained from a brush biopsy.
Ozone is an air pollutant formed in at ground level by the chemical reaction between oxygen and automobile emissions in the presence of sunlight. The objective of this research is to determine how lung size, chemical composition, and normal functioning of the respiratory system affect the amount of inhaled ozone that reaches internal sites of tissue irritation and damage. To infer the distribution of inhaled ozone within the respiratory system, measurements of ozone concentration and air flow are made just outside the nose and mouth of healthy subjects who breathe laboratory-generated, ozonated air for about one hour. Biochemical composition of respiratory mucus is then inferred from nasal washings made with salt water. The amount of ozone that a subject retains in one of these experiments is less than the daily exposure in a large city such as New York or Los Angeles.