Cigarette smoke-induced acute eosinophilic pneumonia accompanied with neutrophilia in the blood

Smoking causes various changes in the lung. This report describes a case of cigarette smoke-induced acute eosinophilic pneumonia (CS-AEP) with neutrophilia in the blood. However, the precise mechanism is unknown, so we examined the effect of exposure to cigarette smoke extracts on the production of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-8, IL-18, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) by human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs) obtained from the patient. We found that IL-8 released from HBECs was involved in neutrophilia in the blood, and is a new factor in the development of AEP, especially in the early phase.