Introduction: The vagus nerve plays a special role in the control of respiratory system activity which represents the parasympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system. A small bronchial innervation by the sympathetic system also is observed, and there is a significant expression of adrenergic receptors, in particular β⊂2 receptors, in the airways. The development of genetics and molecular biology allows for a detailed study which can clarify the essential elements in the pathogenesis of many types of lung disease, as well as the physiological phenomena - bronchial smooth muscle tone and their contractile mechanism.
Material and methods: The study involved 148 healthy male volunteers aged 20-26. In all subjects, gene polymorphism at nucleotide position 46 and 79 of β⊂2-adrenergic receptor (β⊂2-ADR) was assessed. According to the gene polymorphism data, we divided the whole examined population of males into 6 groups for further studies. Moreover, in all the subjects, we performed spirometry testing to verify their pulmonary functions.
Results: The basic values of spirometry tests in all subjects were in the range of normal values. The frequency of different genotypes in the gene polymorphism of the β⊂2-adrenergic receptor at nucleotide positions 46 and 79 were typical for the Caucasian population. Analysis of the output values of spirometry, conducted in the particular groups based on their genotype, showed significant inter-group differences in the selected spirometry tests.
Conclusions: Our results may be useful in explaining the differences in the measured values of spirometric indices in healthy subjects in relation to the polymorphism of β⊂2-ADR, and may also contribute to the verification of standards for spirometric indices for this selected group of young males in the Polish population.