Cigarette Smoke Nasal and Whole Blood Challenge in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

This is a clinical research study to assess whether after exhaling a single cigarette smoke through the nose there are changes in the inflammatory cells and proteins of nasal secretions. A single blood sample from each subject will be stimulated with cigarette smoke in the laboratory to see the effects on inflammatory blood cells. Comparison of findings between smokers with COPD and "Healthy" smokers will be carried out. We hypothesize that some subjects have amplified inflammatory response to a single cigarette, and these will be those subjects who develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after decades of smoking. We hope to develop an acute challenge model that relates to the causation of COPD. When studying the effects of new drugs, these may be detected in small numbers of patients in a challenge situation, when we would need to study many more unchallenged patients to demonstrate drug effects. In clinical research on asthma and allergy, the nasal allergen challenge has been a very successful model, and we hope to validate a comparable model for COPD.