Fig. 7.

Ethanol exacerbates airways hyperreactivity (AHR). (a) AHR was measured by whole-body plethysmography (WBP) by assessing enhanced pause (PenH) at the indicated time-points. PenH was exacerbated at both 1·5 and 14 h post-cockroach allergen (CRA) challenge in mice receiving ethanol, while it was not elevated significantly in the water-gavaged group. (b) AHR was confirmed by measuring airways resistance (R) 14 h post-CRA challenge at baseline and after a 10-min exposure to 25 mg/ml methacholine. Only ethanol-gavaged CRA-challenged mice had significantly elevated resistance over baseline measurements. WBP responses are to 50 mg/ml methacholine for six to eight mice, representative of two separate experiments. Airways resistance responses were in response to 25 mg/ml methacholine, three mice per group. All data represent mean ± standard deviation of the mean; *P < 0·05, **0·01, ***0·001 compared to the sensitized group.