Expression of ICAM-1 in nasal epithelium and levels of soluble ICAM-1 in nasal lavage fluid during human experimental rhinovirus infection.

Most rhinovirus serotypes use intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) as the receptor to enter cells, but ICAM-1 expression has not been detected on normal nasal epithelial cells. During experimental rhinovirus infection, expression of ICAM-1 on nasal epithelial cells was examined with immunohistochemical staining of nasal scrape biopsy specimens, and levels of soluble ICAM-1 in nasal lavage fluid were measured by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. Expression of ICAM-1 on nasal epithelial cells increased following inoculation in 20 of 23 infected subjects.