M Longphre and SR Kleeberger
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is a proinflammatory mediator known to elicit changes in airway reactivity and vascular permeability, and it may also have a role in the development and progression of acute respiratory distress syndrome and asthma. We have developed a mouse model to test the hypothesis that these traits were controlled by a single gene and were mechanistically related. We further hypothesized that there was a relationship between PAF-induced hyperreactivity and baseline reactivity to acetylcholine (ACh). Among eight inbred strains of mice that exhibited significant interstrain variation in ACh reactivity, intravenous PAF induced 16 to 278% increases in reactivity to ACh (25 micrograms/kg). PAF also elicited 95 to 307% increases in lung permeability as measured by Evans blue extravasation. Both reactivity and permeability changes induced by PAF were blocked by a PAF receptor antagonist (L-659,989). Strain distribution patterns for baseline reactivity to ACh and PAF-induced hyperreactivity and lung permeability were not significantly concordant, and suggest that the variables were not interdependent. Progeny derived from AKR/J (PAF hyperresponsive) and C3H/HeJ (PAF hyporesponsive) mice were characterized for their PAF responsiveness as determined by PAF-induced hyperreactivity and hyperpermeability. The ratios of hyperresponsive and hyporesponsive phenotypes in outcross progeny were compared to those predicted for Mendelian inheritance and assessed for relatedness by chi 2 and cosegregation analyses. Results suggested that PAF-induced hyperreactivity was controlled by a single gene, but PAF-induced hyperpermeability was controlled by a more complicated interaction of factors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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