Quantitation of eosinophil and neutrophil infiltration into rat lung by specific assays for eosinophil peroxidase and myeloperoxidase. Application in a Brown Norway rat model of allergic pulmonary inflammation.

Conditions for measuring selectively eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) and the neutrophil myeloperoxidase (MPO) in inflamed rat lung were determined. EPO could be specifically measured with o-phenylene diamine as chromogen at pH 8.0 in the presence of 3 mM bromide and MPO with tetramethylbenzidine as chromogen at pH 5.0 in the absence of bromide but with the EPO inhibitor, resorcinol. Aeroallergen challenge of sensitized Brown Norway rats with ovalbumin, but not with saline, resulted in a pronounced eosinophilic lung inflammation with some focal hemorrhages and an increase in lung wet weights. Quantitation of the eosinophil and neutrophil accumulation required lyophilization of lung samples, a hypotonic wash to remove contaminating hemoglobin, which interfered with the MPO assay, followed by extraction with the detergent cetyltrimethylammonium chloride. Based on lung EPO and MPO activities and standardization of enzyme activity with purified eosinophils and neutrophils, the total number of eosinophils and neutrophils in the lungs was calculated at 24 h (n = 19), 48 h (n = 9) and 72 h (n = 4) after challenge, as 56 +/- 6.4 x 10(6), 119 +/- 28 x 10(6) and 108 +/- 33 x 10(6) for eosinophils, respectively, and 94 +/- 6.8 x 10(6), 49 +/- 5.0 x 10(6) and 32 +/- 5.5 x 10(6) for neutrophils, respectively. We conclude that, with the assay conditions outlined here, EPO and MPO can be used to quantitate the tissue infiltration of eosinophils and neutrophils in the rat even in mixed inflammatory reactions.