Neutrophils and Emphysema

IN this issue of the Journal, MacNee and associates1 report that intense cigarette smoking for about half an hour was associated with the retention of circulating neutrophils in the lungs of the smokers. This was not so in a similar group of cigarette smokers who abstained from smoking for at least one hour or in nonsmokers. This observation is consistent with evidence that neutrophils are important in the pathogenesis of emphysema associated with cigarette smoking.In 1963, Laurell and Erickson observed that subjects whose serum was deficient in α1-antitrypsin, now more appropriately referred to as α1 . . .