The use of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway

Background: The use of cytology brushes for the purpose of obtaining respiratory cells from adults for clinical and research purposes is well established. However, the safety and utility of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway has not been assessed. The purpose of this study wa...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lane, C., Burgess, S., Kicic, Anthony, Knight, D.A., Stick, S.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2005
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/76832
_version_ 1848763771572453376
author Lane, C.
Burgess, S.
Kicic, Anthony
Knight, D.A.
Stick, S.
author_facet Lane, C.
Burgess, S.
Kicic, Anthony
Knight, D.A.
Stick, S.
author_sort Lane, C.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Background: The use of cytology brushes for the purpose of obtaining respiratory cells from adults for clinical and research purposes is well established. However, the safety and utility of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway has not been assessed. The purpose of this study was to assess the practicality of using non-bronchoscopic brushing to sample epithelial cells from children for investigation of epithelial function in health and disease using a wide range of molecular and cellular techniques. Methods: Non-bronchoscopic brushing was investigated in a non-selected cohort of healthy, and mildly asthmatic children presenting for surgery unrelated to respiratory conditions, at the major children's hospital in Perth. Safety and side-effects of the procedure were assessed. Cell number, phenotype and viability were measured for all samples. The potential of these cells for use in long-term cell culture, immunohistochemistry, western blotting, quantitative PCR and gene arraying was examined. Results: Non-bronchoscopic brushing was well tolerated in all children. The only significant side effect following the procedure was cough: nursing staff reported cough in 20% of patients; parents reported cough in 40% of patients. Cells sampled were of sufficient quantity and quality to allow cell culture in 93% of samples. Similarly, protein and RNA extracted from the cells was suitable for investigation of both gene and protein expression using micro-array and real-time PCR. Conclusions: Non-bronchoscopic brushing in children is safe and easy to perform, and is not associated with any complications. Using this technique, adequate numbers of epithelial cells can be retrieved to allow cell culture, western blotting, real time PCR, and microarray analysis. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the utility of non-bronchoscopic airway brushing to obtain and study epithelial cells and to encourage others so that we can accelerate our knowledge regarding the role of the epithelium in childhood respiratory disease. © 2005 Lane et al., licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T11:08:46Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-76832
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:08:46Z
publishDate 2005
publisher BMC
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-768322019-11-11T06:17:22Z The use of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway Lane, C. Burgess, S. Kicic, Anthony Knight, D.A. Stick, S. Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Respiratory System BRONCHIAL EPITHELIAL-CELLS ASTHMA Background: The use of cytology brushes for the purpose of obtaining respiratory cells from adults for clinical and research purposes is well established. However, the safety and utility of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway has not been assessed. The purpose of this study was to assess the practicality of using non-bronchoscopic brushing to sample epithelial cells from children for investigation of epithelial function in health and disease using a wide range of molecular and cellular techniques. Methods: Non-bronchoscopic brushing was investigated in a non-selected cohort of healthy, and mildly asthmatic children presenting for surgery unrelated to respiratory conditions, at the major children's hospital in Perth. Safety and side-effects of the procedure were assessed. Cell number, phenotype and viability were measured for all samples. The potential of these cells for use in long-term cell culture, immunohistochemistry, western blotting, quantitative PCR and gene arraying was examined. Results: Non-bronchoscopic brushing was well tolerated in all children. The only significant side effect following the procedure was cough: nursing staff reported cough in 20% of patients; parents reported cough in 40% of patients. Cells sampled were of sufficient quantity and quality to allow cell culture in 93% of samples. Similarly, protein and RNA extracted from the cells was suitable for investigation of both gene and protein expression using micro-array and real-time PCR. Conclusions: Non-bronchoscopic brushing in children is safe and easy to perform, and is not associated with any complications. Using this technique, adequate numbers of epithelial cells can be retrieved to allow cell culture, western blotting, real time PCR, and microarray analysis. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the utility of non-bronchoscopic airway brushing to obtain and study epithelial cells and to encourage others so that we can accelerate our knowledge regarding the role of the epithelium in childhood respiratory disease. © 2005 Lane et al., licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2005 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/76832 10.1186/1465-9921-6-53 English http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ BMC fulltext
spellingShingle Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Respiratory System
BRONCHIAL EPITHELIAL-CELLS
ASTHMA
Lane, C.
Burgess, S.
Kicic, Anthony
Knight, D.A.
Stick, S.
The use of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway
title The use of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway
title_full The use of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway
title_fullStr The use of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway
title_full_unstemmed The use of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway
title_short The use of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway
title_sort use of non-bronchoscopic brushings to study the paediatric airway
topic Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Respiratory System
BRONCHIAL EPITHELIAL-CELLS
ASTHMA
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/76832