Increased intestinal permeability in bronchial asthma.

T lymphocytes are a major component of bronchial inflammatory processes in asthma. Because lymphocytes have the ability to migrate from one mucosal site to another, we initiated this prospective study to demonstrate mucosal abnormalities of the digestive barrier in asthma. To establish this we studied intestinal permeability in a group of 37 patients with asthma (21 allergic and 16 nonallergic) by measuring chromium 51-labeled ethylenediaminetetraacetatic acid (CrEDTA) urinary recovery.